US House Votes To Replace Bust Of Supreme Court Justice Who Defended Slavery

Earlier this week, the US House of Representatives voted to remove a bust of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney from the Capitol, as the judge’s Dred Scott decision—which justified slavery and denied Black people’s rights—came to the forefront once again. 

Once the measure is approved by President Joe Biden, the sculpture of Taney will be removed from outside of the old supreme court chamber and will be replaced with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the country’s first Black justice. 

According to The Guardian, this particular vote had originally included the removal of statues of the Confederates who fought in the civil war to protect slavery, which was re-introduced following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. 

Zoe Lofgren, a House Democrat, said that while she would have preferred to have the Confederate sculptures pulled down at the same time, the removal of Taney’s bust is a symbolic and literal sign of “who we put on a pedestal.” 

As per CNN, Taney had overseen the Dred Scott v Sandford ruling that took place in 1857, when it was established that neither enslaved nor free African Americans were considered citizens of the US, and weren’t protected under the Constitution.

The discriminatory legislation remained in place until it was eventually overturned by the 13th and 14th amendments in 1865, and it has been spotlighted in recent times as part of an effort around the nation to remove statues of those who supported segregation and slavery. 

“In removing Taney’s bust, I’m not asking that we would hold Taney to today’s moral standards. On the contrary, let us hold him to the standard of his contemporaries… Figures like Taney belong in history textbooks and classroom discussions, not in marbled bronze on public display of honor,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. 

[via The Guardian and CNN, cover image via Mathew Benjamin Brady, United States Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)]