photo credit: Santi S // Shutterstock

This may be hard to believe but the U.S. House of Representative has JUST passed a bill making lynching a federal hate crime.

The vote took place on Wednesday, passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, named after the 14-year-old African American boy who was brutally murdered in a racist attack in Mississippi in 1955. 

If its not hard enough to believe that this bill JUST passed in 2020, check this out, 4 people in the house voted against it. Against making lynching a federal hate crime! Those 4 people are Independent Rep. Justin Amash and  three Republicans: Thomas Massie, Ted Yoho, and Louie Gohmert. Ted Yoho apparently said that he voted against the bill because it is an ”overreach of the federal government” and tramples on state’s rights.”

The bill describes lynching as “a pernicious and pervasive tool” that was frequently performed “by multiple offenders and groups rather than isolated individuals.”

Written by Clarke Jones