Lawmakers Consider Moving Taney Statue From Md. State House

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- It's been on the grounds at the State House in Annapolis since 1872, but some lawmakers say the statue of Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Confederate sympathizer, has no place in 2016.

Amy Yensi has more on the controversy over the statue.

The statue was placed there just after the Civil War--a time when the country was divided. Now some are divided about what should happen to it.

Perched outside the Maryland State House is a statue of Supreme Court Justice Roger Brooke Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision, stating that African-Americans were not citizens and had no rights.

"I think that the place for the statue is in a very dark corner of a room of shame inside of a museum," said Del. Jill Carter.

Maryland lawmakers are considering whether to remove the memorial, which they say is a Confederate symbol.

Del. Carter of Baltimore is championing a bill to have it removed.

Over the years, there have been many proposals to remove the Taney statue. A compromise was reached in the 1990s, with the addition of a Thurgood Marshall statue in Lawyers' Mall.

But Del. Carter says a tribute to Marshall, a Marylander who became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, doesn't go far enough.

The bill comes at a time when some are questioning whether Civil War tributes are symbols of history or racism.

South Carolina removed Confederate flags from Capitol grounds following the race-motivated mass shooting in Charleston in June.

Last month, a Baltimore City commission called for the removal of tributes to Taney and Confederate generals.

"If Maryland prides itself on being a progressive state, they need to get rid of this structure that symbolizes racism and white supremacy. If South Carolina can take steps in that direction, certainly Maryland can," said Del. Carter.

The state estimates it would cost just over $77,000 to remove the statue and $5,000 a year to store it.

The state Senate will have its own hearings about the statue's removal next Wednesday.