Replacement of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney with Bust of Thurgood Marshall

Floor Speech

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 5229) to direct the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol and to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall for installation in the Capitol or on the Capitol Grounds, and for other purposes.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: S. 5229

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. REPLACEMENT OF BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH BUST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:

(1) While sitting in the Capitol, the Supreme Court issued the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision on March 6, 1857. Written by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, whose bust sits inside the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, this opinion declared that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal courts. This decision further declared that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.

(2) Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's authorship of Dred Scott v. Sandford, the effects of which would only be overturned years later by the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, renders a bust of his likeness unsuitable for the honor of display to the many visitors to the Capitol.

(3) As Frederick Douglass said of this decision in May 1857, ``This infamous decision of the Slaveholding wing of the Supreme Court maintains that slaves are within the contemplation of the Constitution of the United States, property; that slaves are property in the same sense that horses, sheep, and swine are property; that the old doctrine that slavery is a creature of local law is false; that the right of the slaveholder to his slave does not depend upon the local law, but is secured wherever the Constitution of the United States extends; that Congress has no right to prohibit slavery anywhere; that slavery may go in safety anywhere under the star-spangled banner; that colored persons of African descent have no rights that white men are bound to respect; that colored men of African descent are not and cannot be citizens of the United States.''.

(4) While the removal of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's bust from the Capitol does not relieve the Congress of the historical wrongs it committed to protect the institution of slavery, it expresses Congress's recognition of one of the most notorious wrongs to have ever taken place in one of its rooms, that of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision.

(b) Removal of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney.--Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library (referred to in this Act as the ``Joint Committee'') shall remove from public display the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol and the plinth upon which the bust is placed. The bust and plinth shall remain in the custody of the Senate Curator.

(c) Bust of Thurgood Marshall.--

(1) Obtaining bust.--Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee shall enter into an agreement to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall, under such terms and conditions as the Joint Committee considers appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

(2) Placement.--

(A) In general.--The Architect of the Capitol, under the direction of the Joint Committee, shall permanently install the bust obtained under paragraph (1) in a prominent location in the Capitol or on the United States Capitol Grounds, as described in section 5102 of title 40, United States Code.

(B) Priority for location.--In determining the location for the permanent installation of the bust obtained under paragraph (1), the Joint Committee shall give priority to identifying an appropriate location near the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol.
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Ms. LOFGREN. I rise in support of this bill.

This bill, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent last week, directs the Joint Committee on the Library to remove the bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney, which now sits in the Old Supreme Court Chamber and to add a bust of Justice Thurgood Marshall here in the Capitol complex.

S. 5229 is the Senate's version of H.R. 3005, a bill which, for the second Congress in a row, passed the House in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.

The United States Capitol is a beacon of democracy, freedom, and equality. It is visited by millions of people each year. What and who we choose to honor in this building should represent our values.

Chief Justice Taney, who in the infamous Dred Scott decision declared that African Americans could never be citizens of the United States and had no constitutional rights, does not meet this standard.

As Senator Charles Sumner said during the 1865 debate on the bill originally authorizing the Taney bust, and I quote Senator Sumner, ``I speak what cannot be denied when I declare that the opinion of the Chief Justice in the case of Dred Scott was more thoroughly abominable than anything of the kind in the history of courts. Judicial baseness reached its lowest point on that occasion.'' More than 150 years later, those words still ring true.

Who better to add to the Capitol complex than Justice Thurgood Marshall? Justice Marshall was a pillar of the civil rights movement and a tireless fighter for justice and equality. From his early days as a litigator, fighting to end Jim Crow and school segregation, to his appointment as the first African-American United States Supreme Court Justice, Justice Marshall is among the most important figures of American history.

Although I am disappointed that S. 5229 does not go as far as the House-passed bill did to rid the Capitol of statues and busts of white supremacists and those who served the Confederacy, we should not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Let's take this opportunity to rid our Capitol of the bust of the man who does not deserve the honor and add one of a man who unquestionably does.

Now, some may argue that this action is an attempt to erase and forget our history. Nothing could be further from the truth. We must never forget our Nation's shameful periods of slavery, segregation, and racism, but this is about who we choose to honor, who we choose to literally put on a pedestal and display as emblematic of our values.

I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 5229, and I reserve the balance of by time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. When Americans from across the country come to visit their Capitol, they are greeted by statues of some of the most influential men and women in our Nation's history: American trailblazers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, who happens to hail from my home State of Illinois. I am proud to serve as the Representative of our 16th President's former home, tomb, and the old State Capitol where President Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in 1858. In that speech, Lincoln spoke out against slavery, including the Dred Scott decision, and delivered one of his most profound statements.

I will quote the President, ``A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.''

While I am proud to hail from the land of Lincoln and see him, among others, who have fought for freedom represented in our Capitol, I also recognize that there are some symbols that were donated nearly 100 years ago that are not representative of our Nation today, a Nation that learns from our past and continues to strive to be a more perfect Union.

For anyone watching today's floor debate, it probably sounds familiar. That is because we voted at least twice in the last 2 years on legislation that would remove the bust of Roger B. Taney from the Old Supreme Court Chamber, and it is a move that I support, but previous legislation has gone nowhere in the Senate because its scope was much larger and aimed to remove several statues beyond that of Mr. Taney.

While I can appreciate that the bill before us today is more narrow in scope and that we are continuing the important discussion about which statues belong in the U.S. Capitol, I am disappointed that this bill didn't go through regular order and didn't go through the regular legislative process and come before the Committee on House Administration that is the committee that has jurisdiction over this issue.

Furthermore, this bill directs the Joint Committee on the Library to carry out the removal of the Taney bust. I point out, though, how antiquated the Joint Committee on the Library has become. It only meets once per Congress to organize, and any actual work of the committee is carried out by the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Rules Committees. Moving forward, I think we need to examine the effectiveness of the joint committee remaining in its current form.

I support removing the bust of Taney and believe statues like his only divide us as a Nation and do not represent the freedoms so many Americans have fought and died for.

It is also important to take a moment to reflect on the fact that for the past 1,005 days, these halls, while getting more people more recently, have been largely closed to the public. And many Americans have not had the opportunity to come visit their Member of Congress nor appreciate all the history, the art, and the statues that are displayed in the Capitol.

That being said, I look forward to the people's House fully opening come January 3 under a new majority.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I will note that I currently chair the Joint Committee on the Library, and I welcome the bill.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Jackson Lee), my colleague on the Committee on the Judiciary.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman of the House Administration Committee for her leadership. I also thank our resident historian, Congressman Hoyer of Maryland, for constantly reminding us of the better virtues of our history.

To my dear friend as well, a Congressman who was eloquent on the floor of his age but also his recognition of the importance of this legislation, I thank him for the bipartisan support.

Mr. Speaker, let me acknowledge my friends that have supported this legislation, including Joyce Beatty, Karen Bass, now mayor of Los Angeles, Barbara Lee, Jim Clyburn, and my cosponsorship as well, because we knew what was important and what had to be done.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support S. 5229, that is a downsizing of the House bill to direct the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove the bust of Roger Brook Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol and to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall for installation in the Capitol or on the Capitol grounds and to be able to lift America up.

It is important to lift America up to her better angels in the understanding of the richness of our history. Those of us who are African Americans came first in the bottom of the belly of a slave boat. We have never had that acknowledged. But it was acknowledged in the Dred Scott decision when it was affirmed with this effort of Roger Brook Taney to say that we were less than a person, that it was all right to make those who were slaves not a human being; that our children were raised under that, and our grandchildren were raised under that.

I remind people that slaves were so long in slavery that they were born slaves, lived as slaves, and died as slaves, which brings me to the importance of H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Slavery and Develop Reparation Proposals. We must get our hands around this issue of slavery and not be afraid of it.

The very fact that the bust will be removed, again, in the words that were said by my colleague, it will get rid of the horribleness of what happened, the outrage of what happened.

I believe the placing of Justice Thurgood Marshall's bust will be a grand step forward, a mighty step forward.

It is absurd. It is horrible. It is without understanding.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support it.

As well, if I might, I want to raise S. 2607, the Tom Suozzi bill, Iran Hostages Congressional Gold Medal Act, and say that it is long overdue.

I met with the hostages' family members who had lived through this tyranny and had lived through it for many days, 53 hostages, which occurred on November 4, 1979. As I recall, they were held for over a year. There were many attempts to free them.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, they remained heroes and patriots, and I believe this is the minimum that we can do to give to those hurting families still, those children that I met, those grandchildren that I met that wondered what happened to their families.

Here we, as a Nation, will recognize that time of their lives when they never gave in to tyranny and never gave up their belief in the values of this Nation.

Again, we remind ourselves that democracy is precious, and it is not free. We must fight for it at every turn. Those who were held hostages as American citizens fought at every turn.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support S. 2607, as well as S. 5229. They both represent the best of what America is, and they both represent telling our story, our history, and honoring it. This is a great democracy, and we must show it every day.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois.

Mr. Speaker, I am still waiting a bit. I sent a text to my colleague from North Carolina, who is supposed to come down. I apologize if this extends the votes this evening, but I don't think we will know the difference between 10:30 and 10:35. We will be all right.

This is a day, too, that I remind my colleagues and say thank you for working with the Senate to narrow the scope of this bill to the egregious statue that we talked about today, and that is of Roger Taney.

Roger Taney helped create in our Nation's history one of the most disgusting Supreme Court decisions that we have ever seen.

But in the end, it was the leadership of people like Abraham Lincoln, who represented my great State of Illinois and some of the counties that I currently represent right here in this institution, it was his leadership that he learned here in the House that he was able to then take on his path to become President at the most consequential time in our Nation's history.

The history of Abraham Lincoln and the leadership it took from him and the dedication it took to end the vile practice of slavery in this country, it is leadership and that historical lesson that we need to continue to teach for generations to come.

My colleague from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) talked about teaching about the bad decisions of people like Roger Taney in courts all across this country and institutions all across this country decades and centuries ago. They belong in our textbooks, and they belong in our history lessons.

This is my fear, Mr. Speaker. My fear is that we are forgetting that even the darkest parts of our Nation's history, the darkest parts of the Civil War, the darkest parts of world history, need to be taught, or many in future generations will forget how far we have come.

They will forget how, right now, the leadership and the dedication of so many people like Thurgood Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, and so many others that have served here in our government and throughout this country put us where we are today, where we have the most diverse Congress in our Nation's history.

We are the House that is representative of the people. Diversity is seen everywhere you turn here in this institution and on this floor.

That is, in part, because people stepped up like Abraham Lincoln after the dreadful Dred Scott decision and said enough is enough and corrected bad parts of our history.

But now, in today's day and age, you see people who didn't get the textbooks that taught all the history, didn't get the history lessons that they needed, defacing and destroying statues of Abraham Lincoln. Wow.

We have to be very careful that we don't let political correctness and uneducated decisions be put forth that will then inspire individuals to think that somehow every great leader in our Nation who is remembered with a statue in communities, even outside this Capitol and throughout our great Nation, are part of a problem. We need to do a better job.

That is the reason we need to open this Capitol back up. Part of the best education to understand our Nation's history is allowing Americans to get back into our hallways to be able to see the statues that we debate about here on the floor.

We can't educate the future leaders of America on the history of our government if they can't see, feel, and touch the history that exists right here in our Capitol.

Today, this bill that we are going to pass is a good thing. Tomorrow, and long after I am gone, my fear is that we will continue to have legislation put forward that will, unfortunately, go a lot further than removing the bust of Roger Taney. Let us, as Americans, be very careful.

Mr. Speaker, I see that my colleague has another speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I would simply ask that all Members support this bill.

There have been a lot of really bad Supreme Court cases over the years, but I don't think it can be said better than Senator Charles Sumner said all the way back in 1865: The Dred Scott decision was more thoroughly abominable than anything of its kind in history.

Chief Justice Taney, the author of this dreadful decision, is really a scar on America and should not be in a place of honor in our Capitol.

Support this bill, and we will remove that stain.

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