– Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney – author of the infamous Dred Scott decision – from the grounds of the State House, ending the monument’s 145-year prominent perch in Annapolis. The move comes after mounting pressure to do away with the Taney statue culminated in the State House Trust voting Wednesday to remove it. His support, announced this week, provided enough votes for the four-member State House Trust to approve on Wednesday to remove it. Charles Taney IV of Greenwich, Connecticut apologized on behalf of his family to the Scott family and to all African Americans for the “terrible injustice of the Dred Scott decision.” Lynne Jackson, the great-great-granddaughter of Dred Scott, accepted the apology for her family and “all African Americans who have the love of God in their heart so that healing can begin.” A woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people who were there to condemn the white nationalists, who held a rally prompted by Charlottesville officials' decision to remove a monument to Robert E. Lee. “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” the Republican president said on Twitter, a day after Baltimore removed its monuments. The monument removals were spurred by last weekend’s rally by Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. — ostensibly to protest plans to remove a statue of Lee there. When the Maryland State House Trust members were polled by email on Wednesday, three members voted for removal: Lt. Gov. As recently as Thursday, as plans were developing for the statue’s midnight removal, Senate President Thomas Mike V. Miller wrote a letter to the governor defending the “complex history” of Taney and arguing why it should stay. The mother of Heyer, the woman killed in Charlottesville, said in a television interview on Friday that after Trump’s comments, “I’m not talking to the president now.”

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“You can’t wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m not forgiving him for that,” Susan Bro told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

There are more than 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces across the United States, with 700 of those being monuments and statues, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
The 145-year-old Roger B. Taney Monument outside Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland, is removed overnight by authorities. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan called on Wednesday for the monument to be taken down immediately.