Too little, too late

The Senate apologized Monday for never having outlawed lynching, which from 1880 to 1960 took the lives of more than 4,700 people, most of them Blacks.

"This (lynching) is really an act of domestic terrorism, and I think it's quite appropriate today that we're discussing this as our country leads the fight against terrorism abroad," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., one of two sponsors of the apology resolution along with Sen. George Allen, R-Va. The resolution passed by voice vote without objection.

Lynchings, defined as any mob killing, not just hanging, have been documented in 46 states.

Victims included Italians, Jews, Asians, Latinos and women, but most were Blacks. Historians have documented 4,742 lynchings from 1890 to 1960, and 80 percent took place in Southern states.

  article

1960.

But wait! There's more....

Over a dozen US Senators refuse to sign on to anti-lynching resolution
by John in DC - 6/13/2005 06:57:00 PM

UPDATE: They passed it by voice vote, to hide the bigots. And AP totally missed the real story.

I just heard this on ABC News. They're apparently holding the vote late tonight so they won't have to have a real roll-call vote (i.e., individual Senators won't have to vote up or down). The reason? So they can hide the 12 or so Senators who apparently think it's bad politics back home to sign onto a resolution that apologizes for not passing anti-lynching legislation sooner. Apparently, southern Senators fillibustered efforts to pass such legislation for years.

  America Blog post

Update 6/15: It appears the voice vote was called for by Frist. And then his secretary tried to blame it on the resolution's sponsors.

Update : America Blog has the list of senators who didn't sign the resolution. I'm still a little foggy on this, as I thought the whole point was that there was a voice vote to avoid signature counting. Maybe I'll check into it a bit more. Maybe.