WASHINGTON (AP) – The House is expected to approve a bill Tuesday that would remove from the Capitol a bust of Roger Taney, the U.S. chief justice best known for an infamous pro-slavery decision, as well as statues of Jefferson Davis and others who served in the Confederacy.
A similar bill last year failed to gain traction, but backers are hoping for a different outcome now that President Joe Biden is in the White House and Democrats control the Senate. Many Republicans in the House are expected to vote for the measure.
The vote comes against the backdrop of larger reckoning in the U.S. with racism, one that’s prompted a reassessment of statues and other symbols that valorize those who upheld white supremacy. Protesters decrying racism last year targeted Confederate monuments in multiple cities, leading to many being taken down. But many others remain in places of honor, including at the U.S. Capitol.
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said the Confederate statues send a message to Blacks that their lives are not valued because those being honored “stood for the proposition that you were less than human.”
“It’s personally an affront to me as a Black man to walk around and look at these figures and see them standing tall, looking out as if they were visionaries and they did something that was great. No, they did something that was very hurtful to humanity,” Johnson said.