America has a history of lynching, but it’s not a federal crime. The House just voted to change that.

The lynching of 14-year-old African American Emmett Till in 1955 shocked the nation and served as a catalyst for the civil rights movement.

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation Wednesday that would make lynching a federal crime, a move supporters said is “long overdue” in a country whose history is stained with the atrocities.

“I cannot imagine our nation did not have any federal law against lynching when so many African Americans have been lynched,” said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., a lead sponsor of the bill. “Lynching was the preferred method of the Ku Klux Klan, the preferred choice of torturing and murdering African Americans.”

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is named in memory of a 14-year-old black teenager who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955. His death was a catalyst for the civil rights movement.

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