Taney sits quietly in Baltimore
December 17, 2007
Monuments in Annapolis and Frederick to Roger B. Taney, the Maryland-born Chief Justice of the United States, came under sustained attack this year, the 150th anniversary of Taney’s pro-slavery Supreme Court decision against Dred Scott’s challenge to his servitude.
But the large statue of Taney in Baltimore — just across Mount Vernon Place’s cobblestones from the Washington Monument — has avoided the same scrutiny.
Wiley A. Hall III fulminated about the subject almost five years ago in the Afro-American newspaper, but recent coverage of the Annapolis and Frederick controversies barely mention the Baltimore statue.
The vice president of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association confirmed the statue sits on public land but said he was not aware of any complaints about the statue’s existence or its depiction of Taney.
Much like the statue in Annapolis, Baltimore’s memorial has a sitting Taney elevated on a platform, with a three-line plaque that simply reads, “Roger B. Taney / Of Maryland / Chief Justice.” No mention of the Dred Scott decision.
If the presence of Taney statues in cities like Annapolis and Frederick has inspired such protest, why has there not been similar outcry in the state’s largest city, which is also home to the national headquarters of the NAACP?
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
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Down with Taney! I’d rather have another He/She.
Leave the statue alone. I’m sure Justice Taney wrote some opinions that those in 2007 would actually agree with. Focusing on one opinion seems a little, oh, I dunno, irrational.