National Anti-Lynching Campaign Fails to Pass Federal Legislation

Between 1882 and 1900, over 1,400 Black people were lynched in the United States — an average of more than one per week. Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, and the newly formed organizations of Black civil society pressed Congress for a federal anti-lynching law throughout the 1890s. Representative George Washington Murray (R-SC), one of the last Black congressmen from the South, introduced anti-lynching legislation. Every attempt failed due to Southern Democratic opposition and Northern Republican indifference. The federal government never passed an anti-lynching law; the Senate formally apologized for this failure in 2005.