WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has given final approval to legislation that for the first time would make lynching a federal hate crime in the U.S.
The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
It was among some 200 bills introduced over the past century that have tried to ban lynching in America.
It is named for the Black teenager whose brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955 became a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights era.
The bill would make it possible to prosecute as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime results in death or serious bodily injury.
It carries a maximum 30-year sentence.
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