Posted on 03/03/2021 12:56:16 PM PST by CedarDave
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s name has been removed from a historic warship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by the Living Classrooms Foundation.
The foundation’s removal of Taney’s name from the ship serves as the latest in a series of gestures meant to acknowledge past wrongs and signal solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
James Piper Bond, LCF president and CEO, said in a statement Wednesday that the organization was inspired to make the change, calling the court ruling “an abomination” and “great injustice” toward Black Americans.
“The national historic landmark we are charged with stewarding should be reflective of our values of equality and opportunity for all,” Bond said. “We are not erasing history. Nor is it our intention to minimize the service and sacrifice of the men and women who have served with honor aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Taney. Our intention is to learn from history and celebrate the legacy of the ship and those who served aboard.”
The ship will, at least for now, be referred to by its hull identification WHEC 37, which stands for high endurance cutter, according to the foundation. The Taney name already has been removed from the ship’s stern.
“The name is being removed because it is a symbol of hate, repression and racial inequality,” said Chris Rowsom, executive director of the Historic Ships in Baltimore museum and vice president of Living Classrooms.
In a statement, U.S. Rep Andy Harris R-MD) said the removal of the name counters the foundation’s educational mission.
“Attempts to re-write shortcomings in our history, instead of using them to educate future generations, is a very bad idea — especially for a museum whose whole stated purpose is history.”
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Why it could have been Lawyer Algoquin "Five percent" J. Calhoun of the Amos and Andy show.
Not how most of us natives pronounce it.
“The name is being removed because it is a symbol of hate, repression and racial inequality,”
“When the SCOTUS messes up a ruling so badly they kick off a Civil War.”
We should have statues of the guy, along with an explanation of what can happen by over-reaching and ill-advised SCOTUS decisions.
It is interesting to learn that it was the abolitionists who pushed for Scott’s freedom and they likely overreached in that cause
Slavery was legal; it was constitutional at the time seven of the nine justices ruled
It’s Baltimore. I grew up there and it is now a black leftist dominated shithole. Check how many mayors and other city politicians have been or are now in jail in the past couple of decades.
No wonder the schools, with a couple of exceptions, are intellectual cesspools and the kids are being cheated out of an honest education.
Sorry folks. We tried to make it a better place to live but the Democrats and their black Machine allies were determined to destroy it, and they did.
Haven’t been back in years and have no plans to do so anymore. Not safe for decent people, black, white, yellow, etc. And Baltimore County is getting just like the city with rising black crime where none existed before .I
I was a Milford Mill Pool/Quarry guy and actually lived in the “Diner” time - knew Boogy Weinglass and actor Michael Tucker (teammate and school mate), (across from Mandell & Ballow’s and down the street from Ameche’s Burger Joint Drive In with his special hamburger sauce). Lived in Levinson’s “Liberty Heights” area and even attended its world-wide debut at the old Senator Theater, with Levinson sitting two rows behind me.
Now I wouldn’t drive on Belair Road without a military escort.
I have to imagine that almost every major museum is full of woke leftists. They have just been in hiding for years.
I went to see the Red Sox at Camden yard about 8 years ago. The inner harbor was nice and I felt safe. I recommend the same trip to a friend in 2018 or 19. They reported back the the once safe inner harbor was no longer safe.
Witnessed EMS cart off a homeless guy who OD and later about 10 officers swarm in when two homeless got into fight saying they were gonna stab and kill each other. All in broad day light.
I see no reason to ever go back.
“We are not erasing history"
It is apparently how he pronounced it.
I am reminded of Chownings Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. For years the people there pronounced it just as one would expect from the spelling.
On my last visit there (now 20+ years ago) the guide pronounce it "Choonings". So I inquired. The guide said that someone showed up several years earlier and claimed they were mispronouncing the name. When asked how he knew this, he replied, "Because I am one." This set off a year of research by the foundation before they decide the guy knew what he was talking about. So now it's "Choonings" as it apparently was 250 years ago.
ML/NJ
Taney was not an admirable person. The Dred Scott decision was one of the worst that the Supreme Court handed down. But striking his name from a ship just removes an opportunity to discuss the history of naming ships occasionally after less than admirable people. They should have put up a sign describing who Taney was and leave it at that. We should not erase history we should remember it both good and bad.
bump
Probably not. Taney's belief that blacks were not and could never be citizens predated his appointment to the Supreme Court. Scott v. Sandford just gave him his excuse to put it into action.
While all that is true, the ship was not named after Taney because he was Chief Justice. It was named for him because he was briefly Secretary of the Treasury. Leave the history of the man to that for the purposes of this ship.
See my #30 for why the ship was named for Taney. It had nothing to do with his being on the Supreme Court or the Dred Scott decision and when named 85 years ago, Blacks were still considered unequal and subject to segregation in the south and discrimination in the north.
“And that’s not the ruling at all.”
You have misunderstood and imaged more.
I thought it was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (repealed by 1857) that the Taney Court struck down in Dred Scott.
ff
I just checked and you are indeed correct. My brain goofed and forgot that there was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and it’s odd that I only recalled Clay’s compromise of 1850 (which involved issues regarding western territory won after the Mexican-American War and Texas and slavery).
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