Taney statue leaves Annapolis
STATE HOUSE TANEY STATUE TAKEN DOWN: Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney from the grounds of the State House, ending the monument’s 145-year perch on the prominent spot in Annapolis, reports Pamela Wood for the Sun.
- Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said his revulsion at what happened in Charlottesville — at a demonstration purportedly in defense of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee— prompted him to change his mind about the Taney statute and push for its removal, an act long sought by civil rights groups, reports the Post’s Josh Hicks.
MILLER CRITICIZES E-VOTE ON TANEY: Senate President Mike Miller is criticizing the Maryland State House Trust for voting by email to remove the statue of Roger B. Taney from the State House lawn in Annapolis. Miller says a public meeting should have been held instead on a matter of such importance. The State House Trust rarely meets in person, often casting votes by email for matters such as approving new plantings on the grounds or giving the go-ahead for performances in the building, reports Pamela Wood in the Sun.
HOGAN, OTHERS BLAST TRUMP: Maryland’s popular Republican governor further distanced himself from President Trump on Thursday, saying that the president has not shown the kind of leadership the country needs following the deadly violence in Charlottesville. “I thought he did a really bad job responding to it,” Gov. Larry Hogan said of Trump’s comments in recent days. “It wasn’t presidential.”
- U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown and others in the Maryland congressional delegation criticized President Trump’s response to events in Charlottesville, shows he is “unfit for office” and called on Republicans in Congress “to take meaningful action to rein in this administration.”
BATTLEFIELD MONUMENTS TO REMAIN: The superintendent of the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg said Wednesday that the park has no plans to remove its Confederate monuments, including a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. And no Maryland Department of Natural Resources lands have monuments or memorials dedicated to the Confederacy, spokesman Gregg Bortz wrote in an email to Herald-Mail Media.
CITY STATUES UNDER COVER: The Confederate monuments taken down in Baltimore remained out of sight Thursday, relegated to a city-owned lot under tarps and police protection, but not out of mind for many, particularly President Donald J. Trump. The push to take down Confederate monuments received unexpected support from descendants of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Writing to the mayor of Richmond, Va., two great-great-grandsons of Jackson called the monuments “overt symbols of racism and white supremacy” that should have been taken down long ago.
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