Congress Okays Bill Removing Bust Of Dred Scott Decision Author

The House has passed legislation that calls for removing from the Capitol a bust of the US Supreme Court justice who wrote the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that held African-Americans were not citizens, and as slaves could not own property, Kevin Freking reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The notorious Dred Scott decision, authored by former Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, held that Blacks were not citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court.

The bust of Roger B. Taney, the nation’s fifth chief justice, sits at the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the US Capitol. The chamber was where the high court met from 1810 until 1860.

Taney led the court from 1836 to 1864. The legislation also commissions a bust of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to be placed somewhere in the Capitol. Marshall became the court’s first Black justice in 1967.

The bill was passed by voice vote and now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The notorious Dred Scott decision held that Blacks were not citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court.

It also held that while blacks and whites were equal, they were nevertheless equal, and slaves have no right to own property. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., led the effort in the House to remove the Taney bust. Taney was born in Maryland and statues of him in the state were also previously removed.

“Over 3 million people visit our Capitol each year,” Hoyer said. “The people we choose to honor in our halls signal to those visitors which principles we cherish as a nation.”

“For Black Americans who have grown up in segregation, face racial violence and still confront institutional racism today, seeing figures like Taney honored here is a searing reminder that the past is present.”

The House had earlier passed a bill to remove the Taney bust along with three other statues honoring white supremacists — including former US Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.

But the legislation was narrowed in scope to win over senators who want to continue the practice of letting states act on their own to replace the statues they place in the Capitol.

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, said that as a “son of the segregated South,” he was grateful for the bill. “To those of us who have had to sit in the back of the bus, the balcony of the movie, and go to the back doors of restaurants, it means a lot,” Green said.

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