Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney is infamously remembered for writing the 1857 Dred Scott decision that supported slavery and refused to recognize Black Americans as citizens. A statue of Taney was also publicly displayed at the U.S. Capitol.
On Wednesday, however, the House passed a bill to have Taney’s bust removed and replaced with that of the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, NBC News reported. The legislation was passed by the House through a voice vote. It states that Taney writing the decision “renders a bust of his likeness unsuitable for the honor of display to the many visitors to the Capitol.”
“While the removal of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney’s bust from the Capitol does not relieve the Congress of the historical wrongs it committed to protect the institution of slavery, it expresses Congress’s recognition of one of the most notorious wrongs to have ever taken place in one of its 19 rooms,” the bill declares.
Taney’s bust is situated in the Capitol building’s Old Supreme Court Chamber. But the Committee of Congress on the Library will ultimately remove the bust and replace it with Marshall’s. The bill was passed by the Senate last week through unanimous consent. What is left now is for President Joe Biden to sign it.
The legislation was introduced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Rep. David Trone in March 2020. And though the House voted 305-113 in favor of the legislation, it did not make it to the Senate, NBC News reported. In 2017, Taney’s statue was similarly removed from the premises of the State House of Maryland.
Over the last few years, Congress has also embarked on a campaign to take down Civil War-era statues. A statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee was taken down from the Capitol in 2020. Four portraits of Confederate House speakers were also removed upon the orders of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
