JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s state House on Wednesday formally condemned the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling denying U.S. citizenship to Dred Scott and other Black Americans.
The GOP-led House voted 152-0 in favor of the resolution, which describes the court decision as a “negative legacy” for the state.
Missouri’s Supreme Court in 1852 ruled against Scott, a slave, in his bid to sue for his freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 ruled 7-2 to uphold that decision, denying U.S. citizenship to Black Americans.
Missouri lawmakers gave a standing ovation upon passage of the resolution decrying that decision.
“I am the descendent of slaves,” Ferguson Democratic Rep. Raychel Proudie said in an emotional speech on the resolution she sponsored. “I can’t believe I’m standing here.”
Rep. Dottie Bailey, a Eureka Republican who also sponsored legislation denouncing the Dred Scott decision, said the ruling is a “scar that remains on our state’s history.”
“It is much past time that Missouri makes a declaration renouncing its part in the failure to ensure the freedom of Dred Scott and so many others like him,” Bailey said.
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