Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Dred Scott Case-150 Years Later


150 years ago this month the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.

On March 6, 1857 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney made his famous declaration that '"beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Hell, sometimes I think that many white Americans still operate under that premise.

When I see the way that African-Americans have been attacked since 1866 by white hooded terrorists, had our neighbohoods burned by white mobs, people lynched, our women raped, our images distorted, history and contributions to this country ignored and had the legal system unfaily stacked against us, I haven't seen much to change my perception.

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