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Remarks: Joe Biden Signs Into Law the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act - March 29, 2022
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Joe Biden Person
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Kamala Harris Person
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Michelle Duster Person
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:00:00-00:00:01 (1 sec)
"[The bill is signed] All right. It's law. [Applause]"
1
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:00:01-00:00:01 ( sec)
"[The President moves to the podium]"
2
Joe Biden
Leans Positive
00:00:01-00:00:12 (11 sec)
"Thank you. It's a little unusual to do the bill signing, not say anything and then speak, but that's how we set it up."
3
Joe Biden
Negative
00:00:12-00:00:31 (19 sec)
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I just signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, making lynching -- [applause] -- a federal hate crime for the first time in American history."
4
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:00:31-00:00:37 (6 sec)
"I want to thank Vice President Harris who was a key co-sponsor of this bill when she was a United States senator. [Applause]"
5
Joe Biden
Somewhat Positive
00:00:37-00:00:59 (21 sec)
"And I also want to thank Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer and members of the Congress here today, especially Congressman Hoyer and Bobby Rush, Senator Dick Durbin and Cory Booker. [Applause] I -- I also want to thank Senator Tim Scott, who couldn't be here today."
6
Joe Biden
Somewhat Positive
00:00:59-00:01:10 (12 sec)
"And the civil rights leaders gathered here today and, most of all, the family of Emmett Till and Ida B. Wells: Thank you for never giving up. Never, ever giving up. [Applause]"
7
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:01:10-00:01:15 (5 sec)
"Matter of fact, her [great]-granddaughter told me that her mother was here -- when? --"
8
Michelle Duster
Neutral
00:01:15-00:01:15 ( sec)
"[Inaudible]"
9
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:01:15-00:01:21 (5 sec)
"-- I mean, your [great]-grandmother was here -- when? --"
10
Michelle Duster
Neutral
00:01:21-00:01:25 (4 sec)
"It was in 1898."
11
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:01:25-00:01:44 (20 sec)
"In 1898, in order to make a case for the antilynching law. It was over 100 years ago, in 1900, when a North Carolina Representative named George Henry White -- the son of a slave; the only Black lawmaker in Congress at the time -- who first introduced legislation to make lynching a federal crime."
12
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:01:44-00:01:49 (5 sec)
"Hundreds -- hundreds of similar bills have failed to pass."
13
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:01:49-00:02:06 (17 sec)
"Over the years, several federal hate crime laws were enacted, including one I signed last year to combat COVID-19 hate crimes. But no federal law -- no federal law expressly prohibited lynching. None. Until today. [Applause]"
14
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:02:06-00:02:22 (16 sec)
"One of the leading chronicles of our history of lynching is Bryan Stevenson, who happens to be a Delawarean from my home state, who wanted very much to be here today but he could not."
15
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:02:22-00:02:32 (10 sec)
"He helped build the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama -- America's first site dedicated to understanding the legacy of lynching."
16
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:02:32-00:02:53 (20 sec)
"You know, his extensive research showed that between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,400 Black people were murdered by lynching, most in the South but some in the North as well. That's a lot of folks, man, and a lot of silence for a long time."
17
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:02:53-00:03:09 (17 sec)
"Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone -- not everyone belongs in America and not everyone is created equal; terror to systematically undermine hard -- hard-fought civil rights; terror not just in the dark of the night"
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Joe Biden
Neutral
00:03:09-00:03:12 (2 sec)
"but in broad daylight."
19
Joe Biden
Somewhat Negative
00:03:12-00:03:20 (9 sec)
"Innocent men, women, and children hung by nooses from trees. Bodies burned and drowned and castrated."
20
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:03:20-00:03:36 (15 sec)
"Their crimes? Trying to vote. Trying to go to school. To try and own a business or preach the Gospel. False accusations of murder, arson, and robbery. Simply being Black."
21
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:03:36-00:03:45 (9 sec)
"Often the crowds of white families gathered to celebrate the spectacle, taking pictures of the bodies and mailing them as postcards."
22
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:03:45-00:03:54 (9 sec)
"Emmett Till was an only child. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago with his mother, Mamie, and grandparents and cousins."
23
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:03:54-00:04:31 (37 sec)
"In the summer of 1955, Emmett turned 14 years old, ready to start eighth grade in the fall. Before school started, he wanted to visit his cousins in Mississippi. So Emmett's mom dropped him off at the train station in Chicago. Her own family fled the Delta decades earlier, so she told him -- she told him the unwritten rules he had to follow. Quote, "Be very careful how you speak. Say 'yes sir' and 'no ma'am', and do not hesitate to be -- to humble yourself if you have to get down on your knees". End of quote."
24
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:04:31-00:04:48 (17 sec)
"That same speech, that same admonition -- too many Black parents today still have to use that admonition. They have to tell their children when it comes to encounters with the law enforcement. You know, and so many other circumstances."
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Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:04:48-00:04:54 (6 sec)
"She kissed Emmett goodbye. It was the last time she saw her son alive."
26
Joe Biden
Somewhat Positive
00:04:54-00:05:12 (18 sec)
"Days after he arrived in Mississippi, Emmett's mutilated body was found in a river, barbed wire tied around his neck and a 75-pound cotton gin fan attached to that wire as he was thrown into the river."
27
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:05:12-00:05:21 (9 sec)
"Emmett's mother -- his mother demanded that her son be sent home so that his funeral in Chicago could be an open casket."
28
Joe Biden
Neutral
00:05:21-00:05:30 (9 sec)
"Here's what she said: "Let the people see what I've seen." America and the world saw what she saw."
29
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:05:30-00:05:47 (16 sec)
"Emmett Till was born nearly 40 years ago after the first antilynching law was introduced. Although he was one of thousands who were lynched, his mother courage -- his mother's courage to show the world what was done to him energized the Civil Rights Movement."
30
Joe Biden
Negative
00:05:47-00:06:05 (18 sec)
"Exactly 100 days later, Rosa Parks was arrested on the bus in Montgomery. Her statue sits in my office. She said, "I thought of Emmett Till and I couldn't go back." "I thought of Emmett Till and I couldn't go back.""
31
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:06:05-00:06:15 (10 sec)
"Dr. King often preached about, quote, "the crying voices of little Emmett Till, screaming from the rushes of the Mississippi.""
32
Joe Biden
Somewhat Negative
00:06:15-00:06:34 (19 sec)
"To the Till family: We remain in awe of your courage to find purpose through your pain. To find purpose to through your pain. But the law is not just about the past, it's about the present and our future as well."
33
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:06:34-00:06:57 (23 sec)
"From the bullets in the back of Ahmaud Arbery to countless other acts of violence -- countless victims known and unknown -- the same racial hatred that drove the mob to hang a noose brought that mob carrying torches out of the fields of Charlottesville just a few years go."
34
Joe Biden
Very Negative
00:06:57-00:07:31 (34 sec)
"Racial hate isn't an old problem; it's a persistent problem. A persistent problem. And I know many of the civil rights leaders here know, and you heard me say it a hundred times: Hate never goes away; it only hides. It hides under the rocks. And given just a little bit of oxygen, it comes roaring back out, screaming. But what stops it is all of us, not a few. All of us have to stop it."
35
Joe Biden
Positive
00:07:31-00:07:50 (18 sec)
"People like Ida B. Wells, one of the founders of the NAACP, established 100 years ago in response to racial terror across the country. A brilliant, gifted writer, she exposed the barbaric nature of lyn- -- of lynching as a tool to intimidate and subjugate Black Americans."
36
Joe Biden
Leans Negative
00:07:50-00:08:03 (14 sec)
"And her words, her courage, her convictions -- she was trying to prevent the murders of Emmett Till and Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others -- over 4,400 others."
37
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:08:03-00:08:18 (15 sec)
"Ida B. -- Ida B. Wells once said, quote, "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon the wrongs." "Turn the light of truth upon the wrongs.""
38
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:08:18-00:08:35 (17 sec)
"That's what all of you have done, gathered in this Rose Garden, with this bill and so much more, including Ida B. Wells's great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster, whom I'm honored to introduce to mark this historic day."
39
Joe Biden
Very Positive
00:08:35-00:08:48 (13 sec)
"Michelle, welcome to the White House, and welcome to the podium. And as my mother would say: God love you, dear. [Note: The video was edited to skip to Kamala Harris' remarks]"
40
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:08:48-00:08:51 (3 sec)
"Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon."
41
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:08:51-00:09:10 (20 sec)
"Michelle, thank you for your powerful words. I was so glad that we had some time in the Oval Office with the President to talk with you about the historic day that we are celebrating but on the shoulders of so many, including your family and you, who have written about it, maintaining your family's legacy of speaking truth always. So, thank you."
42
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:09:10-00:09:20 (10 sec)
"It's good to see everybody. President Biden, members of Congress, I have to shout out to the CBC, to my fellow Americans: Thank you all. [Applause]"
43
Kamala Harris
Somewhat Positive
00:09:20-00:09:26 (6 sec)
"So, lynching -- well, it -- we know it's a stain on the history of our nation."
44
Kamala Harris
Very Negative
00:09:26-00:09:42 (15 sec)
"Since our founding and in particular in the century following the Civil War, thousands of people in states across our nation were tortured and murdered by vigilantes."
45
Kamala Harris
Very Negative
00:09:42-00:10:02 (21 sec)
"They were dragged from their homes. They had ropes wrapped around their necks. They were hanged, burned, drowned, and dismembered -- often, as the President said, as their families were forced to watch and as crowds gathered to spectate."
46
Kamala Harris
Slightly Negative
00:10:02-00:10:16 (13 sec)
"These lynchings were motivated, of course, by racism and meant to cause terror. They were acts committed to secure political and social control."
47
Kamala Harris
Leans Positive
00:10:16-00:10:28 (12 sec)
"But they were not designated crimes by the federal government. Lynching was not considered a crime by the federal government."
48
Kamala Harris
Very Negative
00:10:28-00:10:39 (10 sec)
"Legislation to make lynching a federal crime was first introduced in the United States Congress in the year 1900. It failed."
49
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:10:39-00:11:09 (30 sec)
"In the 122 years since, antilynching legislation has been introduced to the United States Congress more than 200 times, advanced by leaders such as James Weldon Johnson of the NAACP and, of course, the phenomenal Ida B. Wells -- those who courageously knew what had to be done and were undeterred."
50
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:11:09-00:11:54 (45 sec)
"And when we speak of Ida B. Wells, let's understand the courageous nature of that incredible American who used her skill, her profession, her calling as a journalist -- as President Biden noted -- to help open the eyes of our nation to the terror of lynching, which speaks, of course, to the role that we have known also historically -- I'm going off script for a moment -- about the importance of the Black press and the importance of making sure that we have the storytellers always in our community who we will support to tell the truth when no one else is willing to tell it. [Applause]"
51
Kamala Harris
Positive
00:11:54-00:12:03 (9 sec)
"And so, those heroes who petitioned every president from McKinley to Hoover to support federal legislation."
52
Kamala Harris
Very Negative
00:12:03-00:12:31 (28 sec)
"Antilynching legislation was introduced in the wake of some of these most brutal attacks: after the murder of Mary Turner in 1918, after the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, and James Byrd, Jr. in 1998, and James Craig Anderson in 2011. And it failed again and again."
53
Kamala Harris
Very Negative
00:12:31-00:13:19 (49 sec)
"And again and again, antilynching legislation was reintroduced in the United States Congress by leaders who understood that our past must not and cannot be forgotten, that the truth must be spoken no matter how difficult it is to speak and certainly no matter how difficult it is to hear -- leaders who understood that the victims of lynching and their families and all of our society deserve that we recognize the crimes and the injustice of what was occurring and that the people of our nation deserve the protection of a faderal [sic] -- federal antilynching law."
54
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:13:19-00:13:29 (10 sec)
"When I served in the United States Senate, it was a profound honor to sponsor, with Cory Booker, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act."
55
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:13:29-00:13:49 (20 sec)
"And I want to say a thing about Cory Booker -- I'm going to talk about him in front of his face. [Laughter] Cory Booker, I have had the privilege of working with, and he is a man of uncommon courage, unmatched moral clarity, and an unwavering commitment to doing what is right."
56
Kamala Harris
Somewhat Positive
00:13:49-00:13:54 (5 sec)
"Thank you, Cory Booker. [Applause]"
57
Kamala Harris
Positive
00:13:54-00:14:00 (7 sec)
"And I also want to recognize and thank Senator Tim Scott, whose partnership, of course, helped us pass this legislation."
58
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:14:00-00:14:21 (21 sec)
"And with Congressman Bobby Rush -- [applause] -- where is he? There you are -- who kept this fight alive for so many years in the United States Congress. Congressman Rush, you have dedicated your career to guiding our nation toward justice, and I thank you. [Applause]"
59
Kamala Harris
Leans Negative
00:14:21-00:14:48 (27 sec)
"And thank you to so many other leaders who are gathered here who helped us reach this very important day, leaders who witnessed the brutal reality of lynching -- such as Ollie Gordon and Reverend Wheeler Parker, cousins of Emmett Till -- for whom the stories of these crimes are not lines in a history book but vivid memories."
60
Kamala Harris
Very Negative
00:14:48-00:15:12 (24 sec)
"So, today, we are gathered to do unfinished business: to acknowledge the horror in this part of our history, to state unequivocally that lynching is and always has been a hate crime, and to make clear that the federal government may now prosecute these crimes as such."
61
Kamala Harris
Slightly Negative
00:15:12-00:15:31 (19 sec)
"Lynching is not a relic of the past. Racial acts of terror still occur in our nation. And when they do, we must all have the courage to name them and hold the perpetrators to account. [Applause]"
62
Kamala Harris
Positive
00:15:31-00:15:55 (24 sec)
"And with that, I will close by saying this: I believe that so often -- and it has been said -- the victims of lynching were targeted -- and let's be clear about this -- because they were working to build a better America. That's what they were doing."
63
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:15:55-00:16:05 (10 sec)
"It was in everybody's best interest what they were doing. But unfortunately, the cowards couldn't see, didn't understand."
64
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:16:05-00:16:32 (27 sec)
"Those folks who were killed -- they were business owners, creating economic opportunity in their community by which all would prosper and benefit. They were teachers, educating the next generation of America's leaders. They were activists who were defending the sacred freedom to vote."
65
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:16:32-00:16:56 (24 sec)
"So, today, as we recognize them, as we recognize our history, let us also be here gathered to recommit ourselves to that unfinished business, as well; to continuing to fight for freedom, for opportunity, and justice for all."
66
Kamala Harris
Very Positive
00:16:56-00:17:03 (8 sec)
"May God bless you, and may God bless America. Thank you all. [Applause]"
67