Kara Sears
Between 1882 and 1968, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, with seven presidents between 1890 and 1952 asking Congress to pass a federal law. While the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill passed the House of Representatives in 1922, it was blocked in the Senate by Southern Democrats, who opposed federal intervention in state affairs and argued that lynchings were a response to rapes. This dynamic was emblematic of the Democratic Party's base at the time, which consisted largely of white southerners in the South and Catholics and immigrants in big industrial cities of the North and West. The Dyer Bill was the first of many anti-lynching bills supported by the NAACP, influencing the language of all subsequent anti-lynching legislation into the 1950s.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912 |
| Number of anti-lynching bills introduced in Congress between 1882 and 1968 | Nearly 200 |
| Number of anti-lynching bills passed by the House of Representatives during that period | 3 |
| Number of anti-lynching bills approved by the Senate during that period | 0 |
| Reason for lack of Senate approval | Opposition from conservative Southern Democrats |
| States with a high number of lynchings | Texas, Virginia |
| Year of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill | 1922 |
| Outcome of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill | Passed by the House of Representatives but blocked in the Senate by Southern Democrats |
| Year of the Virginia Anti-Lynching Law | 1928 |
| Impact of the Virginia Anti-Lynching Law | First measure to define lynching as a state crime |
| Year of the Costigan-Wagner Bill | 1934 |
| Outcome of early anti-lynching efforts | Lack of support from President Franklin D. Roosevelt due to political considerations |
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What You'll Learn
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Between 1882 and 1968, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, with three passing the House. However, none were approved by the Senate due to the opposition of the conservative Southern Democratic voting bloc. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was first introduced in 1918 by U.S. Representative Leonidas Dyer from Missouri. It was the first of many anti-lynching bills supported by the NAACP.
Dyer's bill was intended to protect citizens of the United States against lynching in default of protection by the states. The bill was a response to the high rate of lynchings in the South and the failure of local and state authorities to prosecute them. Between 1889 and 1918, 2,500 African Americans were lynched, with fewer than one-sixth even accused of rape, disproving the myth that most lynchings were based on African-American attacks on white women.
The Dyer Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922, but its passage was blocked in the Senate by a filibuster from Southern Democrats. This powerful bloc justified their opposition by arguing that lynchings were a response to rapes and that it was an issue for individual states to deal with. Senator William Borah, a strong supporter of state sovereignty, also spoke against the bill, believing that punishing state officials for failing to prevent lynchings was unconstitutional.
The defeat of the Dyer Bill halted efforts to pass similar legislation for a decade. It wasn't until 2022 that both chambers of Congress finally passed an Act to make lynching a federal crime. The Dyer Bill's influence extended to all subsequent anti-lynching legislation supported by the NAACP into the 1950s, including the Costigan-Wagner Bill introduced in 1935 and 1938.
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Opposition from Southern Democrats
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922, but its passage was halted in the United States Senate by a filibuster by Southern Democrats, who formed a powerful bloc. From 1882 to 1968, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, and three passed the House. However, no bills were approved by the Senate during this time due to the opposition of the conservative Southern Democratic voting bloc.
Southern Democrats justified their opposition to the bill by arguing that lynchings were a response to rapes and that lynchings were an issue that should be left for states to deal with. They believed that punishing state officials for failing to prevent lynchings was unconstitutional and that if the states could not prevent such murders, federal legislation would be ineffective.
The Dyer Bill was not the only anti-lynching legislation to face opposition from Southern Democrats. In 1937, Eleanor Roosevelt sat in the Senate Gallery for days as Senators filibustered another anti-lynching bill to death. Even in the early 1940s, Southern Democratic senators threatened to block World War II bills unless their colleagues dropped anti-lynching legislation. The Southern Democrats' opposition to anti-lynching laws was motivated by their desire to maintain white supremacy and racist laws and practices that prohibited Black Americans from voting.
The demographics of Democratic voters during this time were different from today. From the mid-19th century through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Democratic Party's base was made up of white southerners in the South and Catholics and immigrants in big industrial cities in the North and West. This made it challenging for the party to address issues of race cohesively.
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NAACP support
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established on February 12, 1909, to advocate for civil rights and defend Black lives in response to a wave of brutal mob violence against African Americans. The NAACP's anti-lynching campaign was one of its earliest and most important chapters, with the organization aggressively challenging the notion that police powers were reserved for individual states.
Initially, under its first president, lawyer Moorfield Storey, the NAACP did not support the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, introduced by U.S. Representative Leonidas Dyer from Missouri in 1918. Storey argued that the bill was unconstitutional. However, in 1918 or 1919, Storey revised his position, and the NAACP began to support Dyer's anti-lynching legislation and push other lawmakers to act. The Dyer Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922, but its passage was halted in the Senate by a filibuster from Southern Democrats, who formed a powerful block.
The Dyer Bill influenced all subsequent anti-lynching legislation supported by the NAACP into the 1950s, including the Costigan-Wagner Bill in 1935. The NAACP's anti-lynching campaign continued into the 1930s, but proposed bills during this time failed to become law. Despite the failure of these bills, the NAACP's efforts, along with publicity generated by anti-lynching bills and the work of organizations like the National Conference on Lynching, contributed to a dramatic decrease in lynchings after 1919.
The NAACP's early anti-lynching campaign has largely been forgotten or relegated to a footnote in American history. However, it played a crucial role in the quest for social justice during the interwar years and laid the foundation for the organization's successful legal assaults on segregation in later decades.
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The Costigan-Wagner Bill
The bill received support from many members of Congress, including anti-lynching campaigners like Mary McLeod Bethune and Walter Francis White, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. However, despite the support, the Costigan-Wagner Bill faced intense opposition from Southern members of Congress. The Southern Democrats, a powerful voting bloc, argued that lynchings were a response to rapes and that such incidents should be left to the states to deal with. They also believed that punishing state officials for failing to prevent lynchings was unconstitutional.
The bill's passage was blocked by a filibuster in the Senate led by the Southern Democrats. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been pressured to support the bill, refused to speak out in favour of it. He feared losing support from white voters in the South and endangering his reelection chances. As a result, the Costigan-Wagner Bill never made it to the Senate floor for a vote and ultimately failed.
The failure of the Costigan-Wagner Bill marked another setback in the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching legislation. It would take decades of advocacy and lobbying by civil rights activists and organisations like the NAACP before an anti-lynching bill would finally become law in 2022, nearly a century after the introduction of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in 1918.
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The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act
The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate on December 19, 2018, but it did not become law as it was not passed by the House before the end of the 115th Congress on January 3, 2019. A revised version of the bill, which included a serious bodily injury standard, was introduced and passed by both the House and the Senate in 2022.
Lynchings were predominantly committed by whites against African Americans in the Southern states in the early 20th century. Between 1882 and 1968, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, with seven presidents during this time calling for a federal law. However, no bills were approved by the Senate due to opposition from the conservative Southern Democratic voting bloc.
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, introduced in 1918 and passed by the House in 1922, was one such bill that was blocked by Southern Democrats in the Senate. They argued that lynchings were a response to rapes and that states should deal with the issue. The Virginia Anti-Lynching Law of 1928 was the first measure to define lynching as a state crime, although no white person was ever convicted of lynching an African American under this law.
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Frequently asked questions
The Democrats in 1912 did not like the anti-lynching law. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was first introduced in 1918 and was passed by the House of Representatives in 1922 but was blocked by Southern Democrats in the Senate.
Southern Democrats opposed the bill because they believed that lynchings were a response to rapes and that it was an issue that should be left to the states to deal with. They also believed that punishing state officials for failing to prevent lynchings was unconstitutional.
Yes, the NAACP initially opposed the Dyer Bill on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. However, they changed their position in 1918 and began to support anti-lynching legislation.
Yes, in 1928, Virginia passed an anti-lynching law, which was the first measure in the nation to specifically define lynching as a state crime. However, no white person was ever convicted of lynching an African American under this law. It wasn't until 2022 that both chambers of Congress passed an Act to make lynching a federal crime.
Anti-lynching laws sent a strong message against mob violence and helped to reduce the number of lynchings. Lynching was often used as a tool to intimidate black people from voting and enforce white supremacist rule. By the early 20th century, lynchings were predominantly committed by whites against African Americans in the Southern states.
