Bacon introduces House version of bill to criminalize lynching

Lynching would be criminalized and harsher sentencing would be handed down under existing federal hate crime statutes with the enactment of a bipartisan bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).

“We cannot simply wash away the past,” Rep. Bacon said last week, “but we can try to honor the victims by acknowledging that lynching is a terroristic crime that was frequently used to intimidate and oppress African Americans.”

The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2019, H.R. 3536, introduced on June 27 by Rep. Bacon and lead cosponsor U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), would amend U.S. Code to specify lynching as a deprivation of civil rights, according to the congressional record.

H.R. 3536 is the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of the same-named S. 488, introduced on Feb. 14 by U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and approved by the full U.S. Senate the same day. 

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee also on Feb. 14 received S. 488, which on March 22 was referred for consideration to the committee’s Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee.  

H.R. 3536 language mirrors that in S. 488, according to Rep. Bacon’s office, and would state that, “Whoever conspires with another person to violate section 245, 247, or 249 of this title or section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 … shall be punished in the same manner as a completed violation of such section, except that if the maximum term of imprisonment for such completed violation is less than 10 years, the person may be imprisoned for not more than 10 years.”

The measure also would state American historical data acknowledging the effects of lynching and, among several proposed findings by Congress, would stipulate that “only by coming to terms with history can the United States effectively champion human rights abroad,” according to the bill’s text, which adds that “an apology offered in the spirit of true repentance moves the United States toward reconciliation” and may help improve racial relations.