‘From the bullets in the back of Ahmaud Arbery to countless other acts of violence … hate never goes away, it only hides’: Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime alongside Kamala Harris and Al Sharpton

  • President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Tuesday afternoon that makes lynching a federal crime 
  • The bill was named the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, after one of the most gruesome stories of lynching that happened in Mississippi in 1955 
  • ‘To the Till family, we remain in awe of your courage to find purpose through your pain,’ Biden said 

President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Tuesday afternoon that makes lynching a federal crime at a packed event in the Rose Garden alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and civil rights leader Al Sharpton.

The bill was named the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, after one of the most gruesome stories of lynching that happened in Mississippi in 1955 and grew the civil rights movement.

‘To the Till family, we remain in awe of your courage to find purpose through your pain,’ Biden said. ‘But the law is not just about the past, it’s about the present – and our future as well.’

Biden has said time and time again that it was the ‘unite the rally’ and related events in Charlottesville in 2017 that motivated to run for president after deciding not to run in 2016 after the 2015 death of his son Beau.

‘Racial hate isn’t an old problem, it’s a persistent problem,’ the president said. ‘Hate never goes away, it only hids. It hides under the rocks. Give it just a little bit of oxygen it comes roaring back out, screaming.’

‘What stops it is all of us,’ he added. ‘All of us stops it.’

Biden remarked on the long slog it took to get the legislation passed, 100 years after similar bills were proposed.

Vice President Kamala Harris, he said, was an instrumental sponsor when she served in the U.S. Senate.

She took a turn speaking too, as did the great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, Michelle Duster.

Biden acknowledged the long delay during remarks in the Rose Garden to lawmakers, administration officials and civil rights advocates, stressing how the violent deaths of black Americans were used to intimidate them and prevent them from voting simply because of their skin color.

‘Thank you for never giving up, never ever giving up,’ the president said. ‘Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone, not everyone, belongs in America, not everyone is created equal.’

But the president stressed that forms of racial terror continue to exist in the U.S. – creating the need for the law.