Congress Bans Lynchings

The NY Times reports:

WASHINGTON — The Senate unanimously approved a bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime, explicitly criminalizing a heinous act that has become a symbol of the nation’s history of racial violence. ...

Failure to pass such a measure before this year had become a glaring example of the nation’s inadequate response to a crime that has long terrorized Black Americans. The N.A.A.C.P. estimated, based on its records, that Black victims accounted for 72 percent of 4,743 lynchings that occurred between 1882 and 1968.

I am not sure what this law will do. Murder was already a crime.

I just have some questions. If the last lynching was in 1968, why do we need a law now?

Without additional info, that 72% figure is meaningless. Maybe Blacks committed 72% of the offenses that resulted in lynchings.