Folks,

In 2018, I introduced legislation in the Senate with then-Senator Kamala Harris and other colleagues to make lynching a federal crime. This was our first attempt to pass this, but we were by no means the first in history to do so.

For more than a century, Congress failed at 200-plus attempts to pass antilynching legislation as Black Americans — men, women, and children — were killed and terrorized while the federal government failed to protect them. No longer.

Today, I am proud to join President Biden, Vice President Harris, and my Senate and House colleagues who passed this bipartisan bill as the President signs it into law. At long last, we have met the moment, reckoned with a part of our past, and done the right thing.

The name of this bill, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act , honors 14-year-old Emmett Till, a child who was deprived of life, human dignity, and the constitutional protections afforded to all citizens of the United States — and so many thousands like him.

Most Americans don’t realize that of the thousands and thousands of Americans that were lynched, virtually no one was held accountable by authorities. These acts of vicious murder and terrorism were meant to intimidate entire communities.

But today, I feel a sense of relief. I feel our ancestors exhaling. This is a day to rejoice that indeed, the arc of the moral universe is very, very long, but it does ultimately bend towards justice. And this is a day where justice finally prevails.

With love and gratitude,

Cory

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