SPLC Action Fund Responds to House Vote to Remove Confederate Symbols from the U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The SPLC Action Fund Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks released the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives approval of H.R.7573, 305-113, legislation which directs the Architect of the Capitol to remove and replace statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederacy currently displayed in the United States Capitol, and returning those statues located in the National Statuary Hall Collection to their home states.

“We are encouraged that the House of Representatives has finally recognized the offensive nature of Confederate imagery. We applaud the vote and especially welcome the replacement of a bust of former Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney – author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision holding that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery – with the installation of a new Thurgood Marshall bust, which commemorates the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

“Despite President Trump’s repeated attempts to defend racist Confederate symbols and use them to further sow division among Americans, we view today’s vote as another step forward by elected and government officials to recognize that imagery glorifying hate doesn’t belong in public spaces.”

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