Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2019

IC 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 488 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 14, 2019 Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary AN ACT To amend title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a deprivation of civil rights, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 S 488 RFH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Justice for Victims 2 of Lynching Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 Congress finds the following: 5 (1) The crime of lynching succeeded slavery as 6 the ultimate expression of racism in the United 7 States following Reconstruction. 8 (2) Lynching was a widely acknowledged prac- 9 tice in the United States until the middle of the 10 20th century. 11 (3) Lynching was a crime that occurred 12 throughout the United States, with documented inci- 13 dents in all but 4 States. 14 (4) At least 4,742 people, predominantly Afri- 15 can Americans, were reported lynched in the United 16 States between 1882 and 1968. 17 (5) Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators of 18 lynching escaped from punishment by State or local 19 officials. 20 (6) Lynching prompted African Americans to 21 form the National Association for the Advancement 22 of Colored People (referred to in this section as the 23 ‘‘NAACP’’) and prompted members of B’nai B’rith 24 to found the Anti-Defamation League. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 S 488 RFH (7) Mr. Walter White, as a member of the 1 NAACP and later as the executive secretary of the 2 NAACP from 1931 to 1955, meticulously inves- 3 tigated lynchings in the United States and worked 4 tirelessly to end segregation and racialized terror. 5 (8) Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were intro- 6 duced in Congress during the first half of the 20th 7 century. 8 (9) Between 1890 and 1952, 7 Presidents peti- 9 tioned Congress to end lynching. 10 (10) Between 1920 and 1940, the House of 11 Representatives passed 3 strong anti-lynching meas- 12 ures. 13 (11) Protection against lynching was the min- 14 imum and most basic of Federal responsibilities, and 15 the Senate considered but failed to enact anti-lynch- 16 ing legislation despite repeated requests by civil 17 rights groups, Presidents, and the House of Rep- 18 resentatives to do so. 19 (12) The publication of ‘‘Without Sanctuary: 20 Lynching Photography in America’’ helped bring 21 greater awareness and proper recognition of the vic- 22 tims of lynching. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 S 488 RFH (13) Only by coming to terms with history can 1 the United States effectively champion human rights 2 abroad. 3 (14) An apology offered in the spirit of true re- 4 pentance moves the United States toward reconcili- 5 ation and may become central to a new under- 6 standing, on which improved racial relations can be 7 forged. 8 (15) Having concluded that a reckoning with 9 our own history is the only way the country can ef- 10 fectively champion human rights abroad, 90 Mem- 11 bers of the United States Senate agreed to Senate 12 Resolution 39, 109th Congress, on June 13, 2005, 13 to apologize to the victims of lynching and the de- 14 scendants of those victims for the failure of the Sen- 15 ate to enact anti-lynching legislation. 16 (16) The National Memorial for Peace and Jus- 17 tice, which opened to the public in Montgomery, Ala- 18 bama, on April 26, 2018, is the Nation’s first memo- 19 rial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people, 20 people terrorized by lynching, African Americans hu- 21 miliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and 22 people of color burdened with contemporary pre- 23 sumptions of guilt and police violence. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 S 488 RFH (17) Notwithstanding the Senate’s apology and 1 the heightened awareness and education about the 2 Nation’s legacy with lynching, it is wholly necessary 3 and appropriate for the Congress to enact legisla- 4 tion, after 100 years of unsuccessful legislative ef- 5 forts, finally to make lynching a Federal crime. 6 (18) Further, it is the sense of Congress that 7 criminal action by a group increases the likelihood 8 that the criminal object of that group will be suc- 9 cessfully attained and decreases the probability that 10 the individuals involved will depart from their path 11 of criminality. Therefore, it is appropriate to specify 12 criminal penalties for the crime of lynching, or any 13 attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching. 14 (19) The United States Senate agreed to unani- 15 mously Senate Resolution 118, 115th Congress, on 16 April 5, 2017, ‘‘[c]ondemning hate crime and any 17 other form of racism, religious or ethnic bias, dis- 18 crimination, incitement to violence, or animus tar- 19 geting a minority in the United States’’ and taking 20 notice specifically of Federal Bureau of Investigation 21 statistics demonstrating that ‘‘among single-bias 22 hate crime incidents in the United States, 59.2 per- 23 cent of victims were targeted due to racial, ethnic, 24 or ancestral bias, and among those victims, 52.2 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 S 488 RFH percent were victims of crimes motivated by the of- 1 fenders’ anti-Black or anti-African American bias’’. 2 (20) On September 14, 2017, President Donald 3 J. Trump signed into law Senate Joint Resolution 4 49 (Public Law 115–58; 131 Stat. 1149), wherein 5 Congress ‘‘condemn[ed] the racist violence and do- 6 mestic terrorist attack that took place between Au- 7 gust 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, 8 Virginia’’ and ‘‘urg[ed] the President and his admin- 9 istration to speak out against hate groups that 10 espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semi- 11 tism, and White supremacy; and use all resources 12 available to the President and the President’s Cabi- 13 net to address the growing prevalence of those hate 14 groups in the United States’’. 15 (21) Senate Joint Resolution 49 (Public Law 16 115–58; 131 Stat. 1149) specifically took notice of 17 ‘‘hundreds of torch-bearing White nationalists, 18 White supremacists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis [who] 19 chanted racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant slo- 20 gans and violently engaged with counter-demonstra- 21 tors on and around the grounds of the University of 22 Virginia in Charlottesville’’ and that these groups 23 ‘‘reportedly are organizing similar events in other 24 cities in the United States and communities every- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 S 488 RFH where are concerned about the growing and open 1 display of hate and violence being perpetrated by 2 those groups’’. 3 (22) Lynching was a pernicious and pervasive 4 tool that was used to interfere with multiple aspects 5 of life—including the exercise of Federally protected 6 rights, as enumerated in section 245 of title 18, 7 United States Code, housing rights, as enumerated 8 in section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 9 U.S.C. 3631), and the free exercise of religion, as 10 enumerated in section 247 of title 18, United States 11 Code. Interference with these rights was often effec- 12 tuated by multiple offenders and groups, rather than 13 isolated individuals. Therefore, prohibiting conspir- 14 acies to violate each of these rights recognizes the 15 history of lynching in the United States and serves 16 to prohibit its use in the future. 17 SEC. 3. LYNCHING. 18 (a) OFFENSE.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United States 19 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 20 ‘‘§ 250. Lynching 21 ‘‘Whoever conspires with another person to violate 22 section 245, 247, or 249 of this title or section 901 of 23 the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3631) shall be 24 punished in the same manner as a completed violation of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:33 Feb 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S488.RFH S488 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 8 S 488 RFH such section, except that if the maximum term of impris- 1 onment for such completed violation is less than 10 years, 2 the person may be imprisoned for not more than 10 3 years.’’. 4 (b) TABLE OF SECTIONS AMENDMENT.—The table of 5 sections for chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, 6 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 7 249 the following: 8 ‘‘250. Lynching.’’. Passed the Senate February 14, 2019. Attest: JULIE E. ADAMS, Secretary. 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