Because Black people were not human

From “US: The Resurrection of American Terror” by Rev. Kenneth W. Wheeler

The Dred Scott decision in 1857 (Dred Scott v. Sandford). Mr. Scott was an enslaved African American man who sued for freedom for himself and his wife in the State of Missouri. The state court in 1850 would declare the Scotts to be free but the Missouri Supreme Court would reverse the decision of the lower court in 1852. The Dred Scott case would eventually reach the United States Supreme Court, where that court would decide in 1857 that Black people had no rights that a white person had to honor. What that decision meant in very clear terms was that Black people were not citizens and ultimately they were not human. Black people were the lowest in the caste system and this Supreme Court decision of 1857 would legally affirm this to be the case.

This was a white supremacist Supreme Court that ruled that no white person ever had to consider the rights, the complaints, or the feelings of Black people because Black people were not human. Just reading that decision sends chills down my spine. It should be noted that seven of the nine justices voted to support this evil and morally bankrupt decision.

Spread the love