Why does a county in Missouri continue to honor a racist who defended slavery?

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By the Editorial Board

In the far southwest of Missouri is tiny Taney County, home to 56,300 people. We bet 99% of Missourians know little to nothing about the history of Taney County, including where it got its name. That must change, as Taney County bears the name of one of the nation’s most infamous racists, whose statements about slavery and black rights helped spark the outbreak of the Civil War.

The county’s name honors Roger Brooke Taney, the United States Supreme Court Justice who wrote the landmark 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared black people not qualified for national citizenship, regardless of their status as slaves or of free people. To reach the bizarre conclusions of his majority decision, Taney had to break court precedent, twist the historical record and do something that has become all too common in the current Supreme Court: rely on a rigid and originalistic interpretation of the Constitution. Taney used this interpretation to strip black people of their humanity and reduce them to the status of mere property.

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A free Negro of African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a citizen within the meaning of the United States Constitution, Taney wrote.

He cited two clauses of the Constitution that made it morally lawful to trade in [Negroes] as articles of property and to be held as slaves.

Taney also cited the language of the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to analyze what the Founders thought at the time. He then came to a conclusion exactly opposite to what the words actually said: the general words quoted above would seem to embrace the whole human family, and if used in a similar instrument to date, they would be so understood. But it is too clear to dispute that the enslaved African race was not meant to be included and was not part of the people who drafted and adopted this declaration.

Taney was not a person of honor and never deserved to be honored in perpetuity with a county name. Republicans joined Democrats in endorsing the December removal of Taney’s bust from the US Capitol’s former Supreme Court chamber, effectively declaring him unworthy of honor.

For Taney County, continuing to celebrate his name is a way for Missouris to celebrate a disgraced man who maintained an even more disgraceful practice. It’s unclear what it takes to initiate a name change under the state constitution, but it should start with the people of Taney County loudly declaring, especially on this particular national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that the current name, like the bust at the Nations Capitol, shall no longer exist.

Tod Robberson, editorial page editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, discusses the editorial board and how decisions are made.

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