The House voted to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, a move that echos similar efforts in state houses across the country.
The measure passed 285-120. All the ‘no’ votes came from Republicans.
This is the second time the House passed the bill. Last summer, it stalled in a GOP-controlled Senate. Now Democrats are in control of the upper chamber and could force the issue.
As part of the bill, a bust of Roger B. Taney, the chief justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision, will be replaced with one celebrating Thurgood Marshall. In the 1857 Scott case, Taney declared that slaves were not citizens and could not vote. One hundred and ten years later, Marshall became the first African-American on the Supreme Court.
“We can’t change history, but we can certainly make it clear that which we honor and that which we do not honor,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD). “Symbols of hate and division have no place in the halls of Congress.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn invoked the January 6 riots when the legislation was introduced in March.
On January 6th, we experienced the divisiveness of Confederate battle flags being flown inside the U.S. Capitol. Yet there are still vestiges that remain in this sacred building that glorify people and a movement that embraced that flag and sought to divide and destroy our great country. This legislation will remove these commemorations from places of honor and demonstrate that as Americans we do not celebrate those who seek to divide us.
The New York Times explains why Congress’ confederate statues have been so difficult to jettison:
Congress long ago invited each state to send two statues to be featured in the National Statuary Hall collection and does not have the authority to replace them. The bill…order[s] the architect of the Capitol to remove the offending statues from public view, as well as a handful of others placed throughout the Capitol.
The prohibited statues would be returned to the states that sent them. They’d be allowed to send replacements.
According to USA Today, “a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue that stood in the U.S. Capitol on behalf of the state of Virginia for 111 years was removed and taken to a museum in Richmond in December, per the request of Virginia state leaders.”
USA Today also reports that “nearly 800 Confederate monuments were in the U.S. at the beginning of 2020, a number that dwindled to about 700 by the end of last year.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to bring the bill to the Senate floor.
