Joseph McCoy, a black man, was lynched on a Lamp post April 1897, in Alexandria VA, just outside DC, for the alleged assault of a young daughter of his employer. "They dragged him out of the station house, up Fairfax Street to Cameron, down Cameron to Lee, where they quickly put a rope around his neck. It took but a second to jerk him off his feet. The crowd broke into great cheer as the negro was seen dangling in the air . . . "
Lynching was never a federal offense. The U.S. House of Representatives three times passed measures to federally outlaw mob violence, but each time, the proposals were killed in the Senate by southern lawmakers, the Congressional Record shows. In 2005 Resolution 39 was passed as an acknowledgement and apology for congressional failure in thwarting these efforts.
