House Votes To Remove Confederate Statues From US Capitol

House lawmakers have passed a bill that would remove and replace all Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol.

The House approved similar legislation under the Trump administration but it stalled after Senate Republicans argued that the states should decide which statues they'd like to display in the Capitol. But on Tuesday, the bill overwhelmingly passed in 285-120 vote, with 67 House Republicans voting in support of the bill, according to CNN.

If passed in the Senate, the new bill would require all states to remove and replace statues that honor Confederacy.

Additionally, the bill would also remove from the U.S. Capitol the bust of Roger Taney, a former chief justice who authored the “Dred Scott v. Sanford” ruling in 1857, which declared that Scott, a slave, was not entitled to his freedom despite living in a free territory. The infamous ruling also declared that African Americans could not be American citizens.

Taney’s bust will be replaced with the one of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the high court who was an advocate of the civil rights movement.

The bill would also remove and replace other prominent statues and busts, including slavery supporters John C. Calhoun, Charles Aycock and James P. Clarke, and former top officials of the Confederate States Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, according to CNBC.

It also incorporates Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s Confederate Monument Removal Act, which orders the removal of statues symbolizing “slavery, sedition, and segregation.”

The bill was re-introduced last month by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who argued that the confederate flags carried by supporters of former President Donald Trump during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is the reason why Congress needs to replace statues representing disunion and slavery in the U.S.

“There are still vestiges that remain in this sacred building that glorify people and a movement that embraced that flag and sought to divide and destroy our great country,” Clyburn said in a statement. “This legislation will remove these commemorations from places of honor and demonstrate that as Americans we do not celebrate those who seek to divide us,” he added.

It is unclear whether the bill would have enough support from GOP members in the Democratic-held Senate.

The passage of the legislation comes after nationwide protests over racial justice and policing, triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man.

A report from the Southern Poverty Law Center states that “nearly 170 confederate statues were removed in 2020 alone.”