National Urban League Applauds President Biden for Signing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act Into Law

Washington, D.C. (March 29, 2022) – Today, National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial issued the following statement applauding President Biden for signing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, the nation’s first anti-lynching bill, into law:

“I could not have been prouder to stand behind President Biden as he signs the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law today. The act of lynching is a weapon of racial terror that has been used for decades, and our communities are still impacted by these hate crimes to this day. Unanimous Senate passage of the bill sends a message to the nation that we will no longer ignore this deeply problematic part of our history. This bill is long overdue, and I applaud President Biden and Members of Congress for their leadership in honoring Emmett Till and other lynching victims by passing this significant piece of legislation.

“The bill is named after Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African American boy who, in 1955, was kidnapped from his great uncle’s Mississippi home, beaten, tortured, and killed by two white men after being accused of flirting with a white woman working at a grocery store. After Emmett’s murder, his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the decision to hold an open-casket funeral, leaving her son’s brutalized body visible to the thousands who gathered to pay their respects. The images of Emmett’s mangled body and a mother’s raw grief galvanized the country and served as a turning point in the Civil Rights movement.

“The first congressional attempt to pass an anti-lynching law took place in 1900. Between then and now, 200 bills have been introduced in Congress to criminalize lynching but have failed to pass through both chambers. According to the NAACP, an estimated 4,743 lynchings occurred in the U.S. between the years of 1882 and 1968, arguably the height of unchecked racial violence in the south. While we know these crimes were woefully underreported, it is important to ensure that those who commit such heinous crimes are held responsible. 

"While passing this law will never atone for the lives taken, this is still a significant moment in the moral arc of our nation. This bill will ensure those who commit these heinous crimes are held responsible.

“Now, we must address the other vestiges of slavery and the Jim Crow Era; we must deliver on voting rights for the American people.”