JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMOX) - A month after the Missouri House voted 152-0 to formally condemn the Missouri Supreme Court's 1852 decision against Dred Scott, the Missouri Senate also passed the decision on Thursday.
House Concurrent Resolutions 4 and 5 denounced the ruling of the state's highest court, which said Scott and his family "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect" and were denied their freedom.
In 1840, the Scotts sued for their family's freedom, since they were enslaved in a state for several years that had abolished slavery before returning to Missouri. The Scotts, including Dred, his wife Harriet and their two children, won their case in a circuit court in 1850, but the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the decision two years later.
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Now, that decision has been officially condemned by the state of Missouri, with the passage of HCR 4.
“It still surprises me when I walk down the hall and they call me ‘Representative’ and not ‘girl,’” said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I’m a descendant of slaves. I can’t believe I’m standing here.”
The measure was first introduced in January.
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