The House of Representatives is considering a bill that would criminalize lynching more than a century after Congress first attempted to ban the terroristic act.

Rep. Don Bacon, an Omaha Republican, joined two Democrats and a Texas Republican in introducing House Resolution 3536, which mirrors a bill by Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential candidate and former California attorney general, that passed the Senate in February.

In a news release, the bipartisan group of representatives said there has been 200 failed attempts to pass anti-lynching legislation since 1918, and they called on Congress to “right this shameful failure” to outlaw the “instrument of terror and intimidation.”

“Sadly, my own District has a horrible stain in its past with the lynchings of Will Brown and George Smith, both murdered at the hands of lawless and angry mobs in Omaha,” Bacon said.

Brown was lynched during a riot in 1919. A mob hanged him from a telephone pole, dragged his body from a car, burned it and continued to drag his remains.

Smith, who was also referred to as Joe Coe by some newspapers, was lynched in 1891. A mob beat him and dragged him through the streets before hanging him from as streetcar cable.

“We cannot simply wash away the past, but we can try to honor the victims by acknowledging that lynching is a terroristic crime that was frequently used to intimidate and oppress African-Americans,” Bacon said.

Nebraska had at least 71 lynchings between 1859 and 1968, according to data compiled by the Tuskee Institute. Nationally, several thousands lynchings have been documented, with the majority targeting African-Americans.

H.R. 3536, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2019, would provide for enhanced sentencing under existing federal hate crime statutes. It would describe lynching as a tool to intimidate and deny civil rights based on personal prejudges.

“In order for our Nation to heal from past and present racial injustice, Congress must specify criminal penalties for the crime of lynching, or any attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching,” according to the news release from Bacon and other lawmakers. “Only by coming to terms with our own history can the United States effectively champion human rights abroad. This legislation will accomplish that.”