Today In Black History: The Dred Scott Decision and Vice President Kamala Harris
The Maga Right Wing tries to use Dred Scott against VP Harris
Issue #720 Today In Black History, Monday, September 9, 2024
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Ever since Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for president late last July, Trump and the MAGA right-wing have tried to do anything and everything to derail her campaign. Almost all of their attacks have been racist and/or sexist and, in many cases, just plain ridiculous.
One of the most ridiculous accusations is that the Kamala Harris campaign is against the mid-19th century Dred Scott “policy,” which stated that Negroes could not be American citizens and had no rights that the white man was bound to respect.
Of course, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution ratified in 1868, made the 1857 Dred Scott decision null and void by giving all people, including the formerly enslaved, their full rights as American citizens.
Dred Scott was an enslaved African born around 1799 in Virginia. He belonged to several owners before being purchased by Dr. John Emerson, a surgeon in the U.S. Army. Emerson took Scott to live in the free state of Illinois and later the free Wisconsin Territory. Scott’s extended residence in these free regions laid the groundwork for his legal battle.
In 1846, Scott, with the help of anti-slavery lawyers, filed a lawsuit in the Missouri courts claiming that his time spent in free territories made him a free man. The lawsuit eventually was heard by the justices of the United States Supreme Court.
On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. The court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (a brother-in-law of Francis Scott Key), ruled 7-2 against Scott. The decision declared that Black people, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and consequently had no standing to sue in federal court. Moreover, the ruling invalidated the Missouri Compromise, which had attempted to balance the power between slave and free states, by asserting that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.
The Dred Scott decision emboldened pro-slavery factions and deepened the sectional divide between North and South. The ruling bolstered the nascent Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Moreover, it was a major flashpoint that intensified the national discourse leading to the Civil War. This decision has been called the worst decision in Supreme Court history.
While the ruling itself has been universally condemned and rendered obsolete by the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, the Dred Scott decision serves as a stark reminder of the entrenched racial prejudices that still shape American history.
Today In Black History
In 1739, the largest slave revolt in the British colonies was led by a rebel named Jemmy, who, along with 60 slaves, killed 25 whites before the insurrection was put down.
In 1776, Congress officially renamed the country as the United States of America.
In 1800, the African American Episcopal (AME) Zion Church was dedicated in New York City.
In 1817, Alexander Lucius Twilight became the first Black person to graduate from an American college, receiving a B.A. degree from Middlebury College.
In 1915, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
In 1933, Caterina Jarboro became the first Black person to perform with an American opera company when the Chicago Opera Company produced “Aida” at the New York Hippodrome.
In 1957, a Nashville elementary school with an enrollment of 388 white students and 1 new Black student was destroyed by a dynamite blast.
In 1957, Congress passed the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law.
In 1968, Arthur Ashe became the first Black winner of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship.
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