After more than a century of attempts to outlaw the act, the United States Senate has unanimously approved a bill to make lynching a federal crime in the country.

The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act was sponsored by the Senate’s three African-American members who introduced the bill in June to allow lynching to be charged as a hate crime alongside existing crimes such as murder. Those three senators are Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.). Under the bill, lynching ― an extrajudicial mob killing ― could be punished by a sentence of up to life in prison. It would be an additional charge on top of murder.

“Lynching is a dark and despicable aspect of our nation’s history,” said Sen. Kamala Harris. “We must acknowledge that fact lest we repeat it.”

Harris highlighted the vote on Twitter, calling the moment “history.”

For much of US history, lynchings were rarely prosecuted at all. From the 1880s to the mid-1900s, about 3,450 black people were lynched, according to the NAACP. More than 200 anti-lynching bills have been introduced to Congress since 1918, all of which have been voted down.

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