The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that would demolish Confederacy sculptures from the US Capitol building.
This legislation, H.R. 3005, passed by a margin of 285–120, with some Republicans voting against it.
UPDATE: U.S. House votes 285-120 to remove Confederate statues from public display in the Capitol as well as the bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision; 67 Republicans joined Democrats to advance the bill. https://t.co/7hZrKG3OUK
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 30, 2021
The draft law would have monuments of persons who backed the Confederate Army during the Civil War removed. It also wants to swap out a statute of Chief Justice Roger Taney, (who wrote a major judgment supporting the owning slaves in 1857) for one of Thurgood Marshall, the country’s first black Supreme Court judge.
Taney wrote for the majority inside the 1857 Dred Scott case, which held that African Americans can not be U.S. citizens and also that enslavement was not banned by the Constitution. The 14th Amendment, which went into effect in 1868, overrode the ruling.
Congress Intends on Passing the Bill Quickly
This bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, declared that he expects Congress would take it up quickly.
House to vote on removing Confederate statues from U.S. Capitol https://t.co/ItP7VHndbo
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 29, 2021
In a press release, House Speaker Steny Hoyer stated the House took a position against oppression and delivered a statement to the American public that emblems of enslavement, discrimination, and treason are not welcomed in the halls of power.
Hoyer also expressed his delight at the House’s passage of a bill to ban hate speech. Even if we can’t alter the past, we can endeavor to uphold the values on which our country was founded: justice and equality for everyone.
Enslavement and separation symbols, he said, demean our Senate and therefore have no business being here. Those who fought to codify or prolong African Americans’ enslavement or stop them from obtaining fair and effective privileges in our nation are unworthy of being remembered in our society.
The lower congressional body has passed a bill for the second season in a row to destroy sculptures of persons who fought or backed the Confederacy from the Capitol. The measure was submitted during nationwide rallies demanding racial equality regarding the killing of George Floyd; however, it was defeated by the Senate, which was dominated by conservatives in 2020.
Do you agree with the 120 House Republicans that voted against removing Confederate statues from the halls of the Capitol?
— Anita 🇺🇸 (@youngbiafra) June 30, 2021
Democrats Need Ten Republicans To Vote With Them to Pass the Bill
Democrats now have a slim Senate majority, allowing them to compel a vote on a bill. It needs 60 members’ support to pass, which means it will need the support of 10 GOP senators.
Being part of the National Statuary Hall Museum, the Capitol building has two sculptures from each of the 50 U.S. states across its many quarters. If the applicable state’s legislature and governor agree, the sculptures can be removed from the collection.
The sculptures cannot be removed by Congress; however, H.R. 3005, if approved, would allow them to be moved far away from every public location of the Senate within 120 days of their enactment. If the state agrees to fund transportation fees, the sculptures will be restored to the state that gave them.
