The House of Representatives passed a bill to remove a bust of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the decision in the Dred Scott case that established slaves and free African-Americans were not US citizens.
The Dred Scott case determined that African-Americans were not U.S. citizens.
The Senate passed the bill in a voice vote last week and is expected to send it to the president for his signature.
The bill was introduced by a group of Democrats from Maryland.
It would give the committee two years to get a bust of Marshall, who became the first Black Supreme Court justice when he was confirmed to the bench.
While it's important to know our past, we shouldn't place those who tried to divide us in a place of honor.
The bust of a pro-slavery politician has been ordered to be removed as part of a largely Democratic initiative to remove statues of Confederate leaders and other figures that promoted slavery.
The removal of statues of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson has been opposed by Republican senators. A group of GOP Senators criticized the plan to remove a statue of Lee from the former capital of the Confederacy. A counterprotester was killed when a driver rammed his car into the crowd during a Unite the Right protest three years ago. The bill to remove Confederate statues and other politicians who promoted slavery and racial segregation was defeated by 120 House Republicans. The bill's proponents are motivated by the critical race theory concepts of structural racism, microaggressions and a United States based solely on white supremacy. The bill was approved by the House but not by the Senate.
Five years ago, a statue of Taney was removed from the Maryland State House, following a national movement to remove statues of pro-slavery figures. Two years after protesters began removing Confederate monuments in the city, the last monument of a Confederate general was taken down on Monday. The Confederacy's monuments were removed in 2020.
The Dred Scott case was a key ruling in the lead-up to the Civil War, as it restricted the freedom of former slaves by stripping them of federal protections. For over a century, people of African descent have been regarded as beings of an inferior order and not compatible with the white race. Scott, who was born into slavery, filed a lawsuit 17 years before the abolition of slavery in order to prove that he and his wife were free. One year later, he died of Tuberculosis.
The removal of Taney's bust doesn't mean that lawmakers are holding him to today's moral standards, but rather to figures of the time. He said that the figures of Taney should not be displayed on public display of honor.
The last public Confederate monument has been removed by the city.
A bill to replace a bust of Roger Taney with one of Thurgood Marshall was passed by the house.
The bust of Dred Scott was removed from the Capitol.
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