President Joe Biden signing Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Law with the great-grandchildren of Ida B. Wells looking on. (4th from left, Daniel Duster; 2nd from right, Michelle Duster
Rev. Dr. Iva Carruthers, general secretary of Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc., a Chicago-based, faith-based social justice initiative and United Nations NGO, was present today, March 29, 2022, at the signing of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill by President Joe Biden.
Sixty-seven years ago, Till was lynched in Money, Mississippi, by angry white men after allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two men were charged and put on trial for his murder, but both were acquitted. They later confessed to Look Magazine that they had committed the crime, protected from persecution and prosecution because of double-jeopardy laws.
Over the past century, some 200 anti-lynching bills have been presented to Congress, but none made into law. The bill being signed today is historic, making lynching a federal hate crime.
“It is so past the time for this to happen,” declared Dr. Carruthers. “I am sure Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett’s mother, who made sure the world saw what racial hatred did to her son and who worked to advance a law against lynching, is smiling. The ancestors are rejoicing.”
It was Ida B. Wells Barnett’s work to get anti-lynching legislation passed that gained national attention in 1898. The first recorded lynching was in 1835, but research indicates that lynching has its roots in the Revolutionary War and was named after the brother of the man who founded Lynchburg, VA. The “face” of lynching, however, changed in 1886 when the number of Black lynch victims exceeded white victims, thus formally racializing this despicable practice. Wells worked unsuccessfully to get anti-lynching legislation passed and never stopped in her work to create public awareness of the practice due to the fact that those doing the murders were seldom held accountable.
“I know that a law cannot change the hearts of people; this law will not stop lynching, but it will certainly give a foundation for waging a legal fight against it. It is an important milestone in the fight for “equal protection under the law” for Black people in this country,” Dr. Carruthers further stated.
