The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, passed by the Senate in 2018 and by the House of Representatives with an overwhelming majority yesterday, adds the offence of lynching to the US criminal code.

It expands on the Civil Rights Act of 1968 by providing that anyone who conspires with others to attack or intimidate someone on the basis of race “shall be punished in the same manner” as the attackers themselves.

The resolution passed by the Senate and the House states that the crime of lynching “succeeded slavery as the ultimate expression of racism in the United States following Reconstruction” and was “a widely acknowledged practice in the United States until the middle of the 20th century”.

Nearly 5,000 people, predominantly black Americans, were reportedly lynched between 1882 and 1968, and 99 per cent of perpetrators escaped punishment.

However, none of the nearly 200 anti-lynching bills brought before Congress in the first half of the 20th century were passed despite appeals from civil rights groups and successive presidents.

The new resolution states: “Notwithstanding the Senate’s apology and the heightened awareness and education about the nation’s legacy with lynching, it is wholly necessary and appropriate for the Congress to enact legislation, after 100 years of unsuccessful legislative efforts, finally to make lynching a federal crime.”