We Have To Rename "Taney Street" in Philadelphia & Eugene; Honors Dishonorable Judge Behind Racist Dred Scott Decision

In October 1864, 157 years ago, only the length of the lives of two 80-year-old men, Maryland debated a new state Constitution which abolished slavery. The day before the election, Maryland native Roger Taney, the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice who wrote the majority opinion for the racist Dred Scott decision, died. 

"In the fall of 1864, Lincoln urged Maryland voters to approve the new constitution. They did so on October 13 by the narrowest of margins, 400 votes in a turnout of 60,000.", The Fiery Trial, Eric Foner. 

Taney's death the day before the vote was taken as a sign in favor of emancipation.

The New York Times at the time said: "Two ancient abuses and evils were perishing together..."

The Dred Scott decision has been called the worst Supreme Court decision of all time. Not only did it rule against freedom for Dred Scott, Taney also wrote that African-Americans were not citizens, had no rights, and that Congress could not curtail slavery in the territories and federal districts.

Activists in Philadelphia have protested to rename Taney St. there. We call on activists in Eugene, Oregon to work to rename "Taney St." in Eugene to something more appropriate like "Dred Scott Street". (Eugene area activists should also rename Lane County, as Joseph Lane was a pro-slavery, pro-Confederate racist.)

As far as we have been able to determine, Taney St. in Philadelphia and Eugene are the only streets in the U.S. currently named for Taney.

In 2017, a statue of Taney was removed from the Maryland State House.

Taney St. and Taney Park in Philadelphia are in a predominately African-American neighborhood. To force Black kids to grow up having to utter Taney's cursed name to refer to their street and their neighborhood park is so insulting. It has to change. We propose "Dred Scott Street" and "Dred Scott Park". 

Dred Scott advocated for more freedom. Roger Taney advocated for more tyranny.

We call on authorities and activists to work on renaming or removing anything which honors Confederates who attacked the United States, such as Fort Bragg and sadly, so many other things, even at this late date. Only honorable people should be honored. If mistakes were made in honoring people or naming things in the past, we can correct those errors. Together. Moving Forward.