{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sewell.house.gov/2022/3/rep-sewell-attend-signing-emmett-till-antilynching-act-white-house", "Rep. Sewell to Attend Signing of Emmett Till Antilynching Act at the White House", "2022-03-29", "2022", "2022-03", "Democrat", "House", "AL", "Terri A. Sewell", "S001185", "sewell.house.gov", "sewell", "https://sewell.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) will join President Biden at the White House for the signing of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives on February 28 and the Senate on March 7, will designate lynching as a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history.\n\n\u201cEarlier this month, I welcomed a delegation of Members of Congress and civil rights leaders to Montgomery\u2019s National Memorial for Peace and Justice to memorialize the shameful legacy of racial terror and lynching that stains our nation\u2019s history,\u201d said Rep. Sewell. \u201cOnce again, we were reminded that confronting the past with eyes wide open is the only way we as a community can heal and move forward.\u201d\n\n\u201cToday, we mark a truly historic milestone in our ongoing fight for racial justice,\u201d continued Sewell. \u201cFor the first time, lynching is now a federal hate crime thanks to this Congress and the leadership of President Biden. While this legislation is long overdue, there is no time like the present to address injustices of the past. I\u2019m proud to stand with President Biden and my congressional colleagues as we move forward from this painful chapter in our history and affirm the value of Black lives in America.\u201d\n\nFrom Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, nearly 4,000 African Americans were murdered by lynching in the United States. Despite more than 200 attempts to codify antilynching legislation since 1900, it has never been successfully done until today. The legislation is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was brutally lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:06:17Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sewell.house.gov/2022/3/rep-sewell-attend-signing-emmett-till-antilynching-act-white-house"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7731178775429726, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}