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WASHINGTON—Congressman Paul D. Tonko today voted to advance H.R. 3005, long overdue legislation that removes from the U.S. Capitol all busts and statues of individuals who served the Confederacy, including three statues of white supremacists. The bill also replaces a bust of racist former Supreme Court Chief Justice Court Roger Taney—infamous author of the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision to uphold the institution of slavery and deny citizenship to all Black people, whether free or enslaved—with a bust of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

“The hallowed halls of the United States Capitol should reflect our highest ideals as a nation, ideals entirely incompatible with those of support for the confederacy and the brutal institution of slavery,” Congressman Tonko said. “I was deeply humbled to cast my vote today to replace these symbols celebrating bigotry and hatred with figures not only far more deserving of our nation’s highest distinctions, but also that tell a more complete, powerful version of America’s story. While removing these monuments does not erase the stains of racial violence from our nation’s past and present, it holds the promise of bringing forth a deeper more inclusive conversation that will enable us to achieve our brightest future.”

The bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney, a staunch supporter of slavery and the Confederacy during the Civil War, currently sits in the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol houses. In addition to Taney’s bust, it is important to bar all statues of supporters of the Confederacy from the Capitol, as well as remove statues of white supremacists Charles Brantley Aycock, John Caldwell Calhoun and James Paul Clarke. These hateful tributes are an affront to our nation’s founding ideals, and removing them will help ensure that our nation does not celebrate these figures’ horrific, anti-American legacy.

Justice Thurgood Marshall is widely considered one of the most consequential civil rights leaders in American history. After establishing the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Marshall went on to successfully argue a number of cases before the Supreme Court, including the bedrock Brown v. Board of Education case that outlawed racial segregation in public schools. In 1961, Marshall became the first African American Justice in history to sit on the Supreme Court, where he reliably voted to advance civil rights, protect working families and oppose the death penalty. Replacing the bust of Taney with a tribute to Marshall will ensure that Marshall’s important work will be honored and remembered for generations to come.

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