Lynching was named a federal hate crime on Monday, a long-awaited achievement that has consistently failed to pass in Congress for more than 100 years, Axios reported. The House had sweeping support for the legislation in a 410-4 vote. The four dissenters included Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), who told CNN that the bill was “an overreach of the federal government.” Between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,000 African Americans were lynched in 12 states including Kentucky, Arkansas, and Louisiana, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. Last year, a bill titled the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act” passed in the Senate, which sought to specify lynching “as a deprivation of civil rights.”
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