On Tuesday, President Joe Biden signed the long overdue Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law making lynchings a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history.
A possible 30-year prison sentence awaits those committing crimes “prosecuted as a lynching when death or serious bodily injury results from a conspiracy to commit a hate crime.”
"This afternoon, I’m signing the long overdue Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — making lynching a federal hate crime," Biden tweeted Tuesday. "Living up to our founding principles as a nation means coming to terms with the sins of our past. Today, we take another step toward that more perfect union."
Till's cousin, Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., who was with him the night he was murdered attended the signing of the bill on Tuesday. He remarked that the family had been devastated for decades due to the fact that no one was brought to justice. “But we are heartened by this new law, which shows that Emmett still speaks in powerful ways to make sure that no one can get away with a racist crime like this ever again,” Parker added.
Source: twitter.com
