UNITED STATES: Congress apologises for lynchings

On June 14, the US Senate finally apologised for its failure to pass a federal anti-lynching law. Between 1882 and 1968, 4700 people, almost all of them black, were lynched in the United States. Their offences ranged from murder to looking inappropriately at white women. In 1955, 14-year old Emmett Till was tortured for hours before being lynched — for whistling at a white woman. Although the House of Representatives three times passed an anti-lynching bill, it never made it through the Senate due to Southern politicians filibusters. A 91-year old man, the only known survivor of a lynching, was present for the vote. Every year, a bill for reparations to blacks for white racism is moved in Congress. It has not yet passed.

From Green Left Weekly, June 22, 2005.

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From GLW issue 630