The House in a largely partisan vote Tuesday ordered that the bust of former Supreme Court Justice Roger Brooke Taney be removed from the U.S. Capitol.
Taney had authored the court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision that found Blacks were not covered by the Constitution. His bust will be replaced by one of civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall.
The measure, which if passed by the Senate would also remove the statues of all others who voluntarily served in the Confederacy, passed 285-120 with 67 Republicans voting for the measure and 120 opposing it.
But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, while supporting the bill, used the occasion to condemn Democrats for embracing critical race theory, which he called a new form of racism.
“The Democrat Party has doubled down on what I consider a shameful history by replacing the racism of the past with the racism of Critical Race Theory,” said Mr. McCarthy of California on the House floor.
The academic legal theory has set off a firestorm of controversy as it has begun to be taught in schools and used in training members of the military about diversity. It claims that while individual White people may not be racist, many laws and policies continue to discriminate against Blacks, and that Whites reap the benefits.
However, its critics object to portraying the United States as being plagued by systemic racism, because it ignores the progress the nation has made on race and continues to divide the country based on skin color.
Mr. McCarthy noted that Senate Democrats last week appointed Kiran Ahuja to run the Office of Personnel Management in a party-line vote. Ms. Ahuja had headed a non-profit called Philanthropy Northwest, which hosted an event with Ibram X. Kendi, a proponent of the theory. Members of the military have also complained that they are being taught the theory as part of their training.
“Critical Race Theory is the governing ideology [of the entire] Biden administration. By advocating for it, Democrats continue to fuel hatred and division across the country,” Mr. McCarthy said.
“America must reject Critical Race Theory for the simple reason [that] state-sponsored racism is wrong and it always will be,” he said. “It was wrong when it was the segregated lunch counter of Jim Crow, and it is wrong when it is the segregated classrooms of Critical Race Theory.”
Mr. McCarthy also pointed out that a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, had freed the slaves while Democratic elected officials had passed laws restricting the rights of Blacks.
Rep. Karen Bass, California Democrat and a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she and her colleagues “are extremely aware of the history of racism in the Democratic Party and part of our history as Americans is that we criticize our history. We don’t just honor the nice stories and we fight for a more perfect union.”
She called for the removal of Taney’s bust.
“The People’s House can never truly be for the people if it is lined with tributes to people who fought to continue the enslavement of people in this country,” she said.
• Kery Murakami can be reached at kmurakami@washingtontimes.com.
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