WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress approved legislation making lynching a federal hate crime.
The measure was approved today by the House 410 to 4. The Senate unanimously passed similar legislation last year.
The bill, introduced by Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, is named after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.
Rush says the bill will achieve justice for till and thousands of other lynching victims.
Over the past 120 years, Congress has failed to pass anti-lynching legislation nearly 200 times.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill.
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