Dred Scott’s struggle for freedom honored with new memorial

Geoff Bennett:

The name Dred Scott is synonymous with the struggle for freedom; 165 years after the Supreme Court case that bears his name, Scott's grave site is now a memorial befitting that legacy,.

"NewsHour" communities correspondent Gabrielle Hays has the story.

Gabrielle Hays:

In a St. Louis cemetery, a dedication to writing historic wrongs.

Lynne Jackson, Founder, Dred Scott Heritage Foundation:

His original headstone, it just didn't do justice to his history.

Gabrielle Hays:

A new headstone now sits at the grave of Dred Scott, once an enslaved man who went down in history as a plaintiff in an infamous 1857 Supreme Court case.

Cicely Hunter , Historian: Many people sought to emancipate themselves by fleeing across the river or the Underground Railroad in whatever facet that might have looked like emancipating themselves, but Dred Scott and many others pursued that through legal pursuits.

Gabrielle Hays:

Cicely Hunter is a historian in St. Louis.

Cicely Hunter :

He went through several court cases, which ended up coming all the way up until the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land, which ultimately determined that his fate, along with his wives and children, essentially, they were not considered to be citizens, and, therefore, they could not be emancipated.

Gabrielle Hays:

The Scott v. Sandford decision sparked outrage and drove the nation closer to civil war four years later.

Lynne Jackson is the great-great-granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott and founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. She began fund-raising for the new headstone after seeing just how many people wanted to visit her ancestor's grave.

Lynne Jackson, Founder, Dred Scott Heritage Foundation:

The other one was so low, it was difficult to find, and yet I also wanted to be sure that we had space to inscribe on it, so that, when people come really from all over the world to see his resting place, which is one of the top three, if not the top, most requested grave sites at Calvary, there would be something to really see.

Gabrielle Hays:

Scott's grave went unmarked for 100 years after the Supreme Court case was decided.

Pictured here is Lynne Jackson with her family in 1957 at Scott's grave.

Lynne Jackson:

Dred Scott's story started here and ended here, but a lot of what he did affected the whole nation. And this is just one story in thousands that we need to acknowledge and understand.

Gabrielle Hays:

In Maryland, a monument to the Supreme Court justice who authored the decision to deny Scott's freedom was removed completely in 2017.

JOLENE IVEY, Former Maryland State Delegate:

When Roger Taney wrote the Dred Scott decision, he was saying that African-Americans aren't worthy of citizenship or even whole personhood in this country. It's way past time for it to come to an end. It should never have been here.

Gabrielle Hays:

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke about the Scott case last year.

SONIA SOTOMAYOR, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice:

Dred Scott lost his 11-year battle for freedom in the courts, yet he won the war. And so that's why I think we have to have continuing faith in the court system, in our system of government.

Gabrielle Hays:

Dred Scott died a year after his case was decided.

Lynne Jackson:

Thanks for being here today. God bless you.

(APPLAUSE)

Gabrielle Hays:

But his descendants are making sure his legacy stays visible.

Lynne Jackson:

Even though I knew what it was going to look like and I had put it all together, I still had tears when I saw it, because it became this reality that the world can now see.

Gabrielle Hays:

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Gabrielle Hays.