Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation to remove from the Capitol a statue of Roger Brooke Taney, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the racist Dred Scott decision, and replace it with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights icon and the first Black man to serve as a justice on the nation’s highest court (previous coverage available here).
The legislation passed the House by a voice vote after it passed the Senate last week without a recorded vote, a procedure used for bills to which nobody objects. It now advances to President Biden’s desk for his signature.
It was a significant victory for lawmakers who have tried for years to remove Confederate statues and other symbols of racism from the Capitol, and an example of how quickly legislation can move through Congress in a bipartisan manner.
The legislation requires the removal of Justice Taney’s bust from the Old Supreme Court Chamber, a room on the Senate side of the Capitol, no later than 45 days after enactment. Capitol officials then have up to two years to obtain a bust of Justice Marshall as a replacement.
Justice Marshall, born in Baltimore, led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, fighting against segregation, before joining the court. He argued the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which held segregated schools to be unconstitutional.
Born in Calvert County, Md., Justice Taney rose to become the fifth chief justice of the Supreme Court, where he wrote the opinion that Black people could not be considered U.S. citizens.