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President Biden signed a bill on Tuesday to make lynching a federal hate crime.
There have been hundreds of similar bills that were never passed. Federal hate crime laws have been enacted, but never a federal law.
Civil rights leaders and lawmakers have been working for more than 100 years to pass a bill making lynching a hate crime.
The legislation is named for Emmett Till. Till was lynched in 1955 and had an open-casket funeral. This helped fuel the civil rights movement.
The bill passed the Senate earlier this month by unanimous consent, meaning every senator signed off on it moving forward.
The law designates lynching as a hate crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
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