The House passed legislation Wednesday that calls for removing from the Capitol a bust of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that held African-Americans were not citizens.
Published December 14, 2022
The bust of Roger B. Taney, the nation's fifth chief justice, sits inside the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol. The chamber is where the high court met from 1810 until 1860. Taney led the court in that period, 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.Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox.The notorious Dred Scott decision held that Blacks were not citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., led the effort in the House to remove the Taney bust.
“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," Hoyer said.
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