The US Senate Monday unanimously approved a bill that will make lynching a federal hate crime.

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is named after 14-year-old Emmett Till, a Black boy from Chicago who was kidnapped and lynched while visiting family in Mississippi in 1955 after allegedly flirting with a white woman. The legislation would make lynching punishable by up to 30 years in prison, in addition to to any other criminal charges the defendant might face.

With no senators objecting to the bill, it passed Monday evening without a formal vote. The bill was approved by the US House of Representatives last month with only three votes in opposition, and it now goes before President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it into law.

Between 1882 and 1968, at least 4,743 people, mostly Black, were lynched. Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators went unpunished by state or local officials. Prior attempts to ban lynching were unsuccessful, for which Congress issued an apology in 2005. Between 1900 and 1950, about 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced to Congress. Between 1890 and 1952, seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynching, and between 1920 and 1940, the House passed three anti-lynching measures.

Bill sponsor Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) said Monday:

Today, we correct this historic and abhorrent injustice. Unanimous Senate passage of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act sends a clear and emphatic message that our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history and that the full force of the U.S. federal government will always be brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bill’s passage “an important step forward as we continue the work of confronting our nation’s past in pursuit of a brighter and more just future.”