A statue of a former Supreme Court justice who ruled in the 19th century that blacks were not entitled to US citizenship was removed overnight from the grounds of the Maryland State House. The removal of the statue of Roger Taney, who served on the nation's highest court from 1836-1864, is the latest fallout from last weekend's violence at a rally by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 other people injured when an Ohio man suspected of being a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville. Taney was the author of the 1957 Dred Scott ruling that African-Americans, whether slaves or free, were not eligible to be US citizens.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, ordered the removal of Taney's statue from the lawn of the Maryland State House in the state capital, Annapolis. "As I said at my inauguration, Maryland has always been a state of middle temperament, which is a guiding principle of our administration," Hogan said in a statement.
"While we cannot hide from our history - nor should we - the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history," Hogan said. "With that in mind, I believe removing the Justice Roger B. Taney statue from the State House grounds is the right thing to do."
Reporters from The Baltimore Sun who witnessed the removal said it happened between midnight and 2:00 am. The statue was lifted by a crane off its stone base and carted away on a flatbed truck to the Maryland State Archives storage facility, they said. Earlier this week, a statue of Taney was removed in Baltimore, Maryland's largest city, along with several Confederate monuments.
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