Congressman Al Green Joins President Biden at White House for Signing of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act

Press Release

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, Congressman Al Green released the following statement:

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

-- Maya Angelou

"After more than a century of repeated attempts to make lynching a federal hate crime, the 117th Congress of the United States has finally succeeded in designating lynching a hate crime under federal law. H.R. 55, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, is named after 14 year-old African American Emmett Till who was brutally mutilated and murdered by two white men in Mississippi in 1955," Congressman Al Green said. "It's an honor to be at the White House today to witness this historic signing and reflect on Emmett Till, whose death over half a century ago has not been in vain."

"I am a son of the segregated South; a 74-year-old man who in his lifetime was forced to drink from "colored only' water fountains, sit in the back of segregated buses, sit on the balcony of segregated movie theaters, and step off the sidewalk when others of a different hue came along. Having this bill signed into law is not only a nod to justice, but also a solemn salute to the thousands of black Americans who have been lynched since the Jim Crow era."

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which Rep. Al Green proudly co-sponsored, passed the House on February 28, 2022 with overwhelming bipartisan support. On Monday, March 7, 2022, it passed the Senate unanimously.

Congressman Al Green added, "Lynching has been a hateful mechanism to stoke racial divisions and instill fear in black communities for years. It brings out the worst in humanity and knowing that perpetrators of this horrific crime will be penalized pursuant to this new anti-lynching law, gives me hope and may save lives. I thank Rep. Bobby Rush (IL-01) for introducing this monumental legislation and all his efforts to enshrine it into law."

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