Race through time: The Kentucky Derby and the Supreme Court

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://missouriindependent.com/2026/05/08/race-through-time-the-kentucky-derby-and-the-supreme-court/

March 6, 1857 - The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford) which declared that an escaped slave, Scott, could not sue for his freedom in federal court because he was not a citizen. Those of African descent could never be considered citizens but “as a subordinate and inferior class of beings,” according to the Court.

Chief Justice Roger Taney stated in his opinion that the “unhappy Black Race. . . had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it.”

#DredScott

Today in 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a slave, was not a U.S. citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom, and it ruled that slavery could not be banned from any federal territory.

(AP) #MAGA #slavery #USA #DredScott #USSupremeCourt

https://apnews.com/today-in-history/march-6

Today in Labor History March 6, 1857: The Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court opened up federal territories to slavery and denied citizenship to blacks. Dred Scott had sued for his family’s freedom, arguing that they had lived four years in the north, where slavery was illegal. The Court ruled 7-2 that people of African descent weren’t U.S. citizens and thus had no standing before the court.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #dredscott #SCOTUS #racism #BlackMastodon

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tzimmer_history/115712669930819803

Here is Zimmer’s article. “The political movement Vance and Schmitt represent, the one that currently controls the U.S. government and the levers of state power, is evidently not on board with the idea that “all men are created equal.” It is defined by its rejection of any attempt to actualize the egalitarian aspiration that was enshrined most forcefully in the constitution with the Reconstruction amendments.”

#whitenationalism #DredScott