Taney Statue Removed From State House Grounds

This note was placed on the box where the Taney statue once stood. Credit: Robert Lang

This box covers the pedestal where the Taney statue once stood. Credit: Robert Lang

After being removed from the State House grounds, Taney statue loaded on a flat bed on State Circle in Annapolis Credit: Scott Wykoff

Crews removed the statue of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney from the grounds of the State House in Annapolis early Friday.

Capitol police have stood guard at the statue around the clock since Wednesday morning, and officials from the Department of General Services were at the location Thursday making plans for how to take the statue down.

The statue has been on the State House grounds for 140 years, and was a stop on the historical walking tour.

By 1 a.m. Friday, crews moved in a truck and a crane. About an hour later, the statue was removed from its pedestal and put on a truck to be hauled away.

An increasing number of people -- tourists and locals -- stopped by the location during the day Thursday to look at the monument for the first and last time.

"Of course, it's a point of interest to come see if it's here and still here in the near future," said Eddie Chang, of Severna Park.

"I think it's definitely an important time to be living in," said Hannah Lee, of Ellicott City.

The State House Trust voted 3-0 via email Wednesday to remove the statue from its perch.

“I am pleased that the Department of General Services acted swiftly to remove the statue of Roger B. Taney from the State House grounds," House Speaker Michael Busch, one of those votes, said in a statement Friday. "The Dred Scott decision was a divisive issue even in the nineteenth century, hotly debated in the Maryland General Assembly when the statue was first commissioned. One hundred and fifty two years after the end of the Civil War, we don’t need a symbol on the front of the Maryland State House that continues to divide people.”

The fourth member yet to weigh in is Senate President Mike Miller. According to his spokesman, Jake Weissman, Miller would not stand in the way of removing the statue, but believes the issue is so important, it deserves a public hearing.

"It was our understanding that there would be a public meeting to vote on this and discuss other issues," Weissman said. "The Senate president still believes that the State House Trust should have an open and public discussion, both about the removal of the statue as well as where the statue will go, what will go into its place and logistical issues, including how the statue is to be removed."

Miller has sent Gov. Larry Hogan a letter criticizing the way the State House Trust made its decision to remove the statue of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney from the grounds of the Maryland State House.

“Voting on this matter by email was just plain wrong,” Miller wrote, noting that he had requested a public meeting, after Busch and Hogan had both called for the statue’s removal.

Hogan said the trust votes by email on a regular basis, and that Miller never asked for a public meeting.

"I think Mike Miller's making excuses for why he wouldn't take the vote," Hogan said. "He's been ducking [saying what his current position on the Taney statue is] and that's a bunch of nonsense."

READ THE FULL LETTER HERE

Miller said the way the decision was carried out “lacked transparency.” Miller also noted that in the early 1990’s, when the State House Trust voted to create a monument to U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Baltimore native Thurgood Marshall ,the decision was made in a meeting open to the public, and there were lengthy deliberations.

These @StateMaryland signs were placed around State Circle as crews came in to remove Taney statue from State House grounds @wbalradio pic.twitter.com/EKxUCXClp8 — Scott Wykoff (@ScottWykoffWBAL) August 18, 2017

Former Prince George’s County Delegate Jolene Ivey had sponsored legislation in 2007, to remove the statue.

She was among 25 people who watched crews remove the statue overnight. She talked about the removal Friday morning on the C-4 Show on WBAL NewsRadio 1090.