The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1918) was first introduced by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States House of Representatives in order “to protect citizens of the United States against lynching in default of protection by the States.” Due to vigorous lobbying by the NAACP, the bill actually passed in the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922, and there was real optimism that this stain on the national reputation would be removed. A silent protest in support of the bill was organized by African Americans on June 14, 1922 in Washington, D.C. Republican President Warren G. Harding also announced his backing of Dyer's bill during a speaking engagement in Birmingham, Alabama. A filibuster by Southern Democrats in the Senate killed it.
This same voting bloc stymied the subsequent 200 attempts to pass anti-lynching bills. It was not until 2018 that the Senate passed anti-lynching legislation, on which the House of Representatives took no action.
On February 26, 2020, the House got around to passing its own version, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, by a vote of 410–4. Finally shamed into lip-service support, the Senate agreed to pass the revised bill by unanimous consent until Republican Senator Paul Rand found a way to withhold his vote. (“Lynching” was too broadly defined.) It was reintroduced and passed in the 117th Congress with further revision. President Joe Biden signed it into law on March 29, 2022.
Ah well, what’s a century more or less?
