The US House of Representatives approved the Emmett Till Antilynching Act by a 410-4 majority Wednesday, aiming to make lynching a federal hate crime.

The bill is named after 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African-American Chicago boy who was kidnapped and lynched while visiting family in Mississippi in 1955 after allegedly flirting with a white woman.

“Lynching is an American evil. Today, we send a strong message in that violence—and race-based violence, in particular—has no place in America,” wrote Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, who sponsored the legislation, on Twitter Wednesday.

“This act of American terrorism has to be repudiated [and] now it’s being repudiated,” Rush told NPR. “It’s never too late to repudiate evil and this lynching is an American evil.”

Between 1882 and 1968, at least 4,742 people, mostly African-American, were lynched. Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators went unpunished by state or local officials.

Prior attempts to ban lynching were unsuccessful, for which Congress issued an apology in 2005. Between 1900 and 1950, about 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced to Congress. Between 1890 and 1952, seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynching, and between 1920 and 1940, the House passed 3 anti-lynching measures.

The Senate received the bill on Thursday, having approved similar legislation last year.