Steve Burns
WMAL.com
FREDERICK, Md. – (WMAL) After months of wrangling red tape, the Frederick Board of Alderman tonight is scheduled to take a final vote on removing a bust of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney from the City Hall entrance. Taney wrote the majority opinion in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford case, in which African-Americans were denied citizenship, classified as “beings of an inferior order.”
Some in the city have expressed being “uncomfortable” seeing Taney as they enter City Hall, according to Mayoral Executive Assistant Nikki Bamonti. “We want everyone who comes to City Hall to feel comfortable, to feel welcomed,” she told WMAL. “If the sculptures are in any way offensive to folks, I think that’s the impetus as to why they’d be removed.”
Taney has deep ties to the city of Frederick. He settled there to open his law practice and married the sister of native son Francis Scott Key. Alderman decided to pass the task of deciding removal to the Maryland Historical Trust, but they found it was beyond their authority. Alderman tonight will finalize a resolution they passed last year supporting the bust’s removal.
The move hasn’t been without opposition, Bamonti said.
“We have some members of the public who believe the bust should remain in front of City Hall, who believe it’s historically significant,” she said.
Officials said another bust of Governor Thomas Johnson next to Taney’s will also be removed.
“The two statues flank the sidewalk in front of the City Hall building,” City spokeswoman Patti Mullins told WMAL. “Removing one would leave a lack of symmetry.”
Johnson has already found a new home at Rose Hill Manor Park & Children’s Museum. Taney’s future is less certain. City officials say the only entity that has volunteered to take Taney has been the original sculptor’s grandson, who said it likely would not be displayed publicly.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo:Sam Yu/The Frederick News-Post via AP )
