Biden signs Emmett Till Antilynching Act making lynching a federal hate crime

President Biden signs the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, finally making lynching a federal hate crime after over 200 failed congressional attempts spanning more than a century. The law amends the federal hate crime statute to include conspiring to commit hate crimes that result in death or serious bodily injury. Senate Majority Leader Schumer calls it "long overdue." The act is named for 14-year-old Emmett Till, a Black teenager murdered in Mississippi in 1955 whose open-casket funeral, at his mother Mamie Till's insistence, galvanized the civil rights movement. The Senate passes the bill unanimously. The House 422-3.