Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2022
Abstract
United States House of Representative Bobby Rush from Illinois’s District 1 proposed the Emmitt Till Anti-Lynching Act (H.R.35 - 116th Congress 2019-2020). This Act would classify lynching as a federal hate crime. This act has been passed through the House of Representatives but was blocked in the Senate by Rand Paul. This is not a new phenomenon. Anti-Lynching legislation has been repeatedly blocked in the United States Senate. As reported by congressional findings, on all three occasions where anti-lynching legislation would be passed the opposing party argued states' rights, threatened to use the filibuster, or used the filibuster. This research explores the political ambitions of Senator Paul in his decision to block the legislation to achieve a higher office. Simply, does the political ambitions of a candidate increase nomination potential and does party loyalty lead to promotions?
Recommended Citation
Boyd-Johnson, Jerimiah, "The Political Obstruction of Anti-Lynching Policy" (2022). 2022 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents. 1.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/lib_awards_2022_docs/1
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