Yesterday, President Biden signed H.R. 55, the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act” – a bill that was introduced by Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-01) and that Vice President Harris co-sponsored in the Senate – into law. North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson released the following statement: 

“Yesterday, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, making lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history. Lynching is the darkest sin that has plagued our country, including right here in North Carolina. 

“In 1900, more than a 100 years ago, a North Carolina Representative named George Henry White – the son of a slave and the only Black lawmaker in Congress at the time – first introduced legislation to make lynching a federal crime. Since then, hundreds of similar bills have failed to pass. Now, long overdue, we are living up to Congressman George Henry White’s efforts. While there is more work to be done, the Biden-Harris administration has taken critical steps to live up to our founding principles as a nation and are striving towards a more perfect union.”

###