AMN / WEB DESK
The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill to remove statues honoring those who upheld slavery or backed the Confederacy from the Capitol building, which displays statues selected by all 50 states.
The bill will remove a bust of the former Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that denied enslaved people the right to be citizens. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, said on the House floor before the vote that it’s time to remove those symbols of slavery, segregation and sedition from these halls.
The bill passed by a vote of 285 to 120. Every Democrat present and 67 Republicans voted for it. The bill heads to the Senate for consideration, where it would need 10 Republican senators to join every Democrat to pass the upper chamber.