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Call for Removal of Chief Justice Taney Statue from MD State Capitol

government photograph

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland's speaker of the House is calling for the removal of a Confederate statue of the Supreme Court justice who wrote a decision upholding slavery that sits on the front law of the statehouse.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Michael E. Busch said Monday the monument to former Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (TAW nee) "doesn't belong" at the State House in Annapolis.

Taney, a Maryland native, wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to black people.

Busch, a Democrat, made his remarks after hundreds of protesters gathered in Charlottesville over the weekend to decry a gathering of white supremacists to rally against plans to remove a Confederate statue. A woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.