Ida B. Wells, who died March 25, 1931, was born into slavery in MS. She went on to become a tireless champion of racial justice, particularly in documenting and exposing the practice of lynching. For a hundred years Congress has failed to pass a federal anti-lynching law.

In 1922 an anti-lynching law died in the Senate after a filibuster by Southern Democrats. This inaugurated a tradition of using filibusters to thwart civil rights legislation. In 2020 the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was passed in the House.