WASHINGTON — One hundred descendants of an Abbeville farmer lynched in 1916 watched the U.S. Senate apologize Monday for never having passed a law against the crime.

“I never thought I would see this day,” said Phillip Crawford, whose great-grandfather Anthony Crawford was lynched after he questioned the price a white buyer offered for his cotton. “This will help bridge the gap between the races.”

Of the scores who staked out seats in the Senate gallery to watch Monday evening’s historic vote, no family was better represented than the Crawfords. The apology was offered to the 4,749 documented victims of lynching — and their descendants.

With Phillip Crawford, a detention officer with the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office, came his son, grandson and nephew. They met up with branches of Anthony Crawford’s family now living in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Doria Dee Johnson of Evanston, Ill., a great-great-granddaughter of Anthony Crawford, has been a national leader in the campaign for the apology resolution.

Senators said the apology, which passed on a voice vote, was necessary for the Senate’s repeated failure to address a shamefully long and brutal chapter in American history.

More than 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress in the first half of the 20th century. Seven presidents urged passage, and the House passed three such bills. But senators, including several from South Carolina, killed anti-lynching legislation by filibuster.

“The Senate is uniquely culpable,” said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. She and U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., were the lead sponsors of the legislation.

Lynching “is really an act of domestic terrorism,” she said. “It’s quite appropriate today that we’re discussing this as our country leads the fight against terrorism abroad.”

Seventy-three other senators signed on as co-sponsors, including Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Lynching, defined as any mob killing — not just hanging — has been documented in 46 states. Victims include Italians, Jews, Asians, Latinos and women, but most victims were blacks. Eighty percent of lynchings occurred in the South.

State and local officials often took part in the savage murders, which typically involved torture and mutilation. They were often public affairs, advertised in newspapers and held in town squares or on fairgrounds. Black victims often had achieved a degree of success or conveyed a sense of self-worth some whites deemed unacceptable.

James Cameron, 91, the survivor of a 1930 lynching, came to Washington to recall his near death at the hands of a mob in Marion, Ind. At 16, Cameron was falsely accused of raping a white woman and murdering a white man. His two friends, also accused, were hanged.

Cameron was saved by a man who convinced the mob of his innocence.

“They had the rope around my neck, and they were going to lynch me,” he said. “The apology is a good idea, but it still won’t bring anyone back. And I hope the next time it won’t take so long to admit our mistakes.”

Fewer than one percent of lynchings were followed by serious attempts to bring those responsible to justice.

Representing the Crawford family, and flanked by senators at a news conference before the vote, Johnson wore a shirt emblazoned with a picture of her great-great-grandfather.

Growing up, she had heard the story of his murder. As an adult, she traveled to Abbeville and researched the circumstances of his death, learning that his 437 acres of farmland had been confiscated and much of his family forced to flee.

She joined “A Committee for A Formal Apology,” a group formed in 2003 that includes comedian Dick Gregory and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., veterans of the civil rights movement.

On Monday, Johnson said she felt “elated,” but she added that an apology should stand as a starting point for a long and deep national discussion on race.

“We prayed for this. Grandpa Crawford guided us all the way.”

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@washingtonbureau.com.