Statement by Wade Henderson Regarding the Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Speech by Wade Henderson on September 26, 2000.
Good morning. I'm Wade Henderson, the Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The Leadership Conference is the nation's oldest and largest civil and human rights coalition. Since its establishment in 1950, the Leadership Conference has promoted the passage and monitored the implementation of laws designed to achieve equality under law for all persons in the United States.
I'm joined this morning by members of the LCCR Hate Crimes Task Force; and we will hear from two of its co-chairs: Winnie Stachelberg, Nancy Zirkin. Our website can be reached at www.unitedagainsthate.org.
Hatred that leads to violence is a matter of fundamental concern to the Leadership Conference. Hatred of people because of who they are, where they worship, or the color of their skin, is the antithesis of what we stand for as a nation.
The issue of hate crime violence seized America's attention, two years ago, when James Byrd, Jr. was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged to his death on a backwoods road in a racially motivated attack, in Jasper, Texas.
In October of that same year, Matthew Shepard, an openly gay 21 year-old university student was savagely beaten, tortured, tied to a wooden fence in a remote area in Laramie, Wyoming and left to die in freezing weather.
Just this past Friday, in Roanoke, Virginia, a man opened fire in a gay bar, injuring six and killing one man, Danny Lee Overstreet, who like so many victims of hate crime violence, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Since these grisly events, our national conscience has been rubbed raw with shock after shock of hate-motivated violence. Some of the incidents have received widespread national attention while others have not.
In 1998 there were 7,755 reported hate crimes, nearly one every hour of every day. More importantly, we know that these statistics represent just a fraction of the hate-motivated incidents that have taken place in this country.
We cannot allow this escalation of hate-motivated violence to go unchecked. It is time for Congress to strengthen federal hate crimes law. No equivocation; no excuses.
Proposed legislation known as The Hate Crimes Prevention Act has been introduced in Congress to strengthen the federal law. This important bill would remove unnecessary obstacles to federal prosecution and provide needed authority for federal involvement to solve crimes directed at individuals not only because of their race, religion or ethnicity, but also because of their gender, disability or sexual orientation. We believe that while bigotry cannot be legislated out of existence, a forceful and moral response to hate-related violence is required of all of us. On June 20, the Senate voted, 57to 42 with strong bi-partisan support to include the language of the revised Hate Crimes Prevention Act, renamed the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2000, as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill. The amendment was offered by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and with the courageous leadership of Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and was supported by 44 Democrats and 13 Republicans.
On September 13, in an equally bi-partisan vote, the House instructed conferees to retain that hate crimes language in the DOD bill, by a margin of 232 to 192. The motion to instruct is a non-binding measure and was offered by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) with the important leadership of Representative Bill McCollum, Forty-one courageous Republicans in the House supported this measure.
In addition to Congressional support, there is also broad public support for this legislation. 175 law enforcement, religious, civic and civil rights groups support this bill. Yet we are still faced with fierce political opposition, from the House Republican Leadership and organizations like the Christian Coalition, which has mobilized its members in an attempt to block this necessary legislation.
We must not allow their efforts to succeed; which is why we stand before you today. We are announcing the launch of a public media strategy. The political leaders of this nation must be held accountable for their actions.
We stand on the threshold of an historic opportunity, an opportunity to enact vital hate crimes prevention legislation. This legislation has the support of the Senate, the House, the President and most importantly the American people. It would be unconscionable for the conferees to remove this language from the DOD Authorization bill.
