Why Congress failed nearly 200 times to make lynching a federal crime

Lawmakers in the first half of the 20th Century tried nearly 200 times to address lynching on a federal level. Although seven presidents supported such efforts, none were successful, according to anti-lynching legislation introduced last week by three black senators.

If the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018 passes, lynching would finally become a federal crime.

The legislation describes the custom as the “ultimate expression of racism” in post-Reconstruction America. Between 1882 and 1968, 4,745 people were lynched. The first efforts to address this lawlessness on the federal level came in 1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant approved legislation to subdue the actions of white-supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.