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Taney statue removed from Md. state house grounds overnight Justice Taney defended slavery in 1857. Now his statue is gone from Md.’s State House.
(about 7 hours later)
Workers dismantled a 145-year-old statue of Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney outside the Maryland State House shortly after midnight Friday, the latest ripple effect from last weekend’s deadly violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville. Workers came to the Maryland State House grounds after midnight on Friday to dismantle a controversial statue of Supreme Court justice and segregationist Roger B. Taney, the latest ripple effect from the deadly violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said his revulsion at what happened in Charlottesville — at a demonstration purportedly in defense of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee — prompted him to change his mind about the Taney statute and push for its removal, an act long sought by civil rights groups. Activists had sought for years to remove the 145-year-old statue from the State House complex in Annapolis, saying that to honor Taney — the chief justice whose 1857 Dred Scott decision defended slavery and said blacks could never be U.S. citizens — was hurtful and wrong.
The State House Trust board voted Wednesday to remove the memorial to Taney, a former chief justice who defended slavery in the court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision. Taney’s ruling said blacks, whether slaves or not, could never be U.S. citizens. But top state politicians, including Gov. Larry Hogan (R), defended the memorial as an important piece of Maryland history. Until Charlottesville.
Police blocked off the streets around the State House complex Thursday evening. A crane and two flatbed trucks arrived shortly after midnight, and a crew soon began the process of removing the memorial from its base, with more than two dozen bystanders looking on, mostly local residents who figured the road closure must have been a sign that the monument would be coming down soon. Hogan said his revulsion at the demonstration in Virginia, purportedly in defense of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, prompted him to change his mind about the Taney statute and push for its removal.
Some witnesses commented that Taney’s likeness, gazing slightly down, appeared to be bowing its head in shame as workers pulled straps around his frame. “We can’t wipe out all of our history, nor should we try to,” the governor said Thursday. “But when it reaches the point where some of these symbols, whether they have historical significance or not, when they become a focal point for racism and violence, then it’s time to do something about it.”
“It’s just a bad statue overall,” said Robb Tufts, 43, of Annapolis. “He’s all hunched over like Ebenezer Scrooge . . . we deserve to celebrate the heroes of Maryland, not the villains of history.”
[Trump embraces culture war with call to preserve Confederate statues][Trump embraces culture war with call to preserve Confederate statues]
As the crane’s arm started extending toward the monument shortly after 1 a.m., sprinklers erupted on the State House lawn, sending crew members scrambling and briefly disrupting their work, as though Taney was making a last stand atop his perch. The State House Trust board, which Hogan chairs, voted Wednesday to remove the statue. Thursday night, police blocked off the streets around the State House complex. Soon, a crane and two flatbed trucks arrived.
After work resumed, the crane lifted the statue and maneuvered it to a flatbed truck, where the memorial was wrapped in a tarp and driven away around 2:20 a.m. More than two dozen bystanders looked on as a crew began removing the memorial from its base. Among them was Jolene Ivey, an African American former state delegate from Prince George’s County who began advocating a decade ago for the state to take down the statue. She said that when the legislature voted to erect the statue, a few years after the Civil War, lawmakers were quoted calling the Dred Scott decision “just, righteous and right.”
Hogan’s spokesman, Doug Mayer, said the monument would be placed in an undisclosed state storage facility. The perch remained on the lawn, covered by a wooden box. “How in the world could we continue to have it at the doors of the State House?” Ivey said. “Not at this time.”
A different statue of Taney and three Confederate memorials in Baltimore were taken down under cover of darkness early Wednesday. As the crane’s arm extended toward the monument shortly after 1 a.m., sprinklers were activated on the State House lawn, briefly disrupting the effort. After work resumed, the crane lifted the statue and maneuvered it to a flatbed truck, where it was wrapped in a tarp and driven away around 2:20 a.m.
President Trump, who has made conflicting statements about who is to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, has decried the removal of monuments, saying on Thursday that the “history and culture of our great country” was “being ripped apart.” The onlookers, who had been largely quiet, chanted “Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.” Some said Taney’s likeness appeared to be bowing its head in shame as workers pulled straps around the frame.
Cookie Washington, an African American who turned 59 on Friday and has lived in Annapolis since childhood, said seeing the demise of Taney statue “felt like a birthday treat.” “It’s just a bad statue overall,” said Robb Tufts, 43, of Annapolis. “We deserve to celebrate the heroes of Maryland, not the villains of history.”
[Roger B. Taney wrote one of Supreme Court’s worst rulings]
Cookie Washington, an African American who turned 59 on Friday and has lived in Annapolis since childhood, said the demise of the statue “felt like a birthday treat.”
“With what’s happening in this country lately, it doesn’t feel welcoming for everyone,” she said. “I’m glad to see this.”“With what’s happening in this country lately, it doesn’t feel welcoming for everyone,” she said. “I’m glad to see this.”
The removal of the memorial in Annapolis came hours after Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) lashed out at the governor for not holding a public hearing on the issue before the State House Trust board voted. The monument was to be placed in an undisclosed state storage facility, Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer said. Its base remained on the lawn, covered by a wooden box.
[Removing a slavery defender’s statue: Roger B. Taney wrote one of Supreme Court’s worst rulings] A different statue of Taney and three Confederate memorials were taken down in Baltimore early Wednesday.
In a letter to Hogan, Miller defended Taney’s legacy and long record of government service, and said the memorial should stay put to help educate people about the past. He also criticized Hogan for pushing a vote on the matter “outside the public eye.” President Trump, who has made conflicting statements about who is to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, has decried such removals, saying Thursday that the “history and culture of our great country” was “being ripped apart.”
Hogan is chairman of the State House Trust board, which voted by email — its traditional method — to remove the Taney statue and make plans for storing or relocating it. Miller, House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Maryland Historical Trust chair Charles L. Edson are also members of the panel. Hogan countered that the president “probably should stop talking about the issue because not very many people are agreeing with him these days.”
Mayer said Thursday that Miller is “completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney,” adding that Hogan and the Senate leader would have to “agree to disagree.” Not everyone agreed with Hogan, either. Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) lashed out at the governor in a letter Thursday for not holding a public hearing on whether to remove the statue.
Busch called for removal of the statue on Monday, saying that “the time has come for Taney to come down.” A spokeswoman for his office said the speaker’s decision was influenced by Saturday’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville and the racially motivated 2015 mass shooting at an African American church in Charleston, S.C. Miller, an avid reader of history who also sits on the State House Trust board, said the memorial should stay put to help educate people about the past. He credited Taney for “anti-slavery words and actions,” saying that “unlike George Washington who freed his slaves upon his death, Taney freed his slaves early in his life.” He also noted Taney’s many roles in public service, including state lawmaker and attorney general, U.S. secretary of war, U.S. attorney general and U.S. treasury secretary.
[Baltimore hauls away four Confederate monuments after overnight removal] Voting by email — the board’s traditional way of doing business — was “just plain wrong,” Miller wrote, adding that the matter was “of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred.”
Hogan announced on Tuesday that he would take action to remove the monument, saying it’s “the right thing to do.” House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who is also on the board and voted to remove the statue, said he was “pleased” it was gone. “One hundred and fifty two years after the end of the Civil War, we don’t need a symbol on the front of the Maryland State House that continues to divide people,” he said in a statement.
Busch, Edson and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R), who serves as Hogan’s designee on the board, voted in favor of taking down the monument. Miller did not vote. Conservative blogger Greg Kline, describing himself as a “proud and unabashed apologist” for Hogan, wrote on RedMaryland.com that for once he could not support the governor. “Here are words I thought I would never write: Senate President Mike Miller is exactly right on this issue and Governor Hogan is lamentably wrong,” Kline wrote.
The Senate president said in his letter that voting by email was “just plain wrong” and that the matter was “of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred.” The governor also received some critical comments on his Facebook page.
Miller, who is known to be an avid reader of history, credited the former chief justice for “anti-slavery words and actions,” saying that “unlike George Washington who freed his slaves upon his death, Taney freed his slaves early in his life.” “Maybe we should tear down churches in the middle of the nite, so we don’t offend any extremists,” one poster said.
He also noted Taney’s many roles in public service, including state lawmaker, Maryland attorney general, U.S. secretary of war, U.S. attorney general and U.S. treasury secretary. Another wrote: “I’m outraged and disappointed that you have become part of the distruction movement to rid the state of historical monuments, as well as joining in in the Trump bashing. You have lost a vote and a campaign worker.”
The state placed the Taney statue on the lawn of the capital complex in 1872. Since then, it has added interpretive plaques explaining the controversy over his divisive Dred Scott opinion and erected a statue of Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native who was the first African American Supreme Court justice, on the opposite side of the State House. Maryland placed the Taney statue on the lawn of the capitol complex in 1872. Since then, it has added interpretive plaques explaining the Dred Scott opinion and erected a statue of Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native who was the first African American Supreme Court justice, on the opposite side of the State House. The trust agreed last year to erect statues in the State House honoring abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.
The trust also agreed last year to erect statues in the State House honoring abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.
Benjamin Jealous, the former NAACP president who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Hogan in 2018, said Monday that he would push to take down all Confederate statues in the state if he is elected.Benjamin Jealous, the former NAACP president who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Hogan in 2018, said Monday that he would push to take down all Confederate statues in the state if he is elected.
Responding to news of Miller’s letter, Jealous said he was “disappointed to hear there would be any opposition to this issue.” State leaders, he said, “should be setting the right example for our children, who should know that when the time came, we had the courage to say there’s no room for symbols of hate in our state.” State leaders, Jealous said, “should be setting the right example for our children, who should know that when the time came, we had the courage to say there’s no room for symbols of hate in our state.”
Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.
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