The House of Representatives voted almost unanimously on Wednesday to pass a bill co-sponsored by Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford that would classify lynching, or extrajudicial killings, as a federal hate crime for the first time in the country’s history.

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was passed in the House with an overwhelming 410-4 vote just as Black History Month draws to a close. The measure was introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) in January 2019 and Horsford became a co-sponsor of the bill in August. 

“After more than 200 failed attempts in the last 120 years, the House of Representatives has succeeded in passing historic legislation to outlaw the heinous act of lynching,” Horsford said in a statement. “From Charlottesville to El Paso, we are still being confronted with the violent racism that led to the murder of Emmett Till. Today, with the passage of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, we are sending the message that we will not tolerate this hatred.”

The measure is named after the 14-year-old boy killed in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly making advances toward a white woman. The woman, Carolyn Bryant, admitted in 2007 that she had exaggerated her story about the interaction with Till. The boy was murdered by Bryant’s then-husband and brother-in-law, who were acquitted at trial by an all-white jury.  

The four votes against the bill were Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert (Texas), Thomas Massie (Kentucky) and Ted Yoho (Florida), as well as Independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan. 

According to the Dallas Morning News, Gohmert cited insufficient consequences as the reason he couldn’t support the bill and mentioned the crime should be prosecuted by state, not federal authorities. 

When Rep. Leonidas C. Dyer of Missouri introduced the first anti-lynching bill to pass the House 102 years ago, a filibuster killed it in the Senate, with lawmakers citing states’ rights. 

There are records of 4,743 people lynched in the U.S. from 1882 to 1968, according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Horsford cited the statistic in his statement, saying “long-overdue justice” can finally be brought to victims who “died at the hands of bigotry and racism.” 

“This bill lays the foundation to combat the persistent ignorance and hatred that pervades our nation, we must and can do more to remedy these challenges,” he said. 

Democratic Rep. Karen Bass of California echoed Horsford’s statement on the House floor on Wednesday, citing recent violence in Charlottesville and El Paso as ties to past, historical racial violence. Bass also talked about recent incidents of nooses found in workplace locker rooms and on college campuses to scare black people — “a vicious reminder that the past is never that far away,” she said.