Political Quotes

“33 years ago, I stood near this spot and watched Thurgood Marshall come through these doors as a member of the Supreme Court at a State of the Union address. And as a Marylander and as a Baltimorean, I had a great sense of pride. I got to know Mr. Marshall. All he ever said by his eloquence and his example was this is how we ought to be as Supreme Court justices. I must tell you, I was dismayed, though, years earlier, to learn as a young student at Morgan State University the history of Roger B. Taney, who did just the opposite to my spirit and just the opposite, I think, to what we believe Supreme Court Justices should act like and how they conduct themselves. A gentleman from the other side earlier said that Mr. Taney rendered the worst Supreme Court decision ever. And he is exactly right. That decision said that Black people had no rights for which the White man must respect, and therefore that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his own benefit. It also said that Black people born in America, like Dred Scott, were not citizens and it eviscerated the Missouri Compromise of 1820. So replacing the statue of Taney with one instead of Thurgood Marshall seems to me the way we ought to go as a Chamber.…”