C’mon, City Council, rename Taney Street already | Editorial

If you ask legal scholars to name the worst court decision in American history, nearly all of them will mention Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that in 1857 formally established white supremacy as the law of the land, declaring that a person of African ancestry could not be an American citizen.

Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, spent time in states and territories where slavery was illegal. They sued for their freedom under local law after being taken back to Missouri. The court not only found that moving to a free state did not mean the Scotts were emancipated, but Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s majority opinion also stated that Black people were “so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

Yet, despite this act of manifest bigotry, Philadelphia is home to a street named for the notorious justice.

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Today, the city is home to a plurality Black population. In the antebellum period, however, Philadelphia functioned as “the most Northern of Southern cities,” as Frederick Douglass put it. Pro-slavery mobs burned Pennsylvania Hall to prevent abolitionist speeches. The city’s business leaders conducted a booming business with Southern planters. The Pemberton family, prominent Quakers who in the 17th century helped William Penn manage the commonwealth, even sent one of their own to the Confederate army.

It follows that in 1858, one year after his notorious decision, city leaders renamed “Minor Street” in Taney’s honor. More than 160 years later, Philadelphia should rectify that mistake.

A coalition of residents and near neighbors has asked the city to do exactly that. Early efforts began after the national prominence of pitching phenom Mo’ne Davis and the Taney Dragons in the 2014 Little League World Series. Their success served as a reminder to many in Philadelphia that the city was still honoring Taney. In 2020, the team rebranded as the Philadelphia Dragons.

Given the context, you would think saying yes to a street name change would be easy for Philadelphia City Council. After all, no one is willing — at least, out loud — to defend that Taney deserves the distinction. But sadly, thanks to that body’s steadfast dedication to “councilmanic prerogative” and extreme aversion to political risk, progress has proved elusive.

Taney Street is a relatively small road, extending across several disjointed stretches in North and South Philadelphia. Yet it touches three Council districts — represented by Kenyatta Johnson, Curtis Jones Jr., and Darrell L. Clarke — meaning that three different pieces of legislation would be required to remove the name from Philadelphia entirely.

Organizers have also complained that councilmembers have consistently shifted their proposed thresholds for support. For their part, the respective Council offices have said they would like to avoid disrupting mail service and other potential complications for residents. They’ve asked organizers to supply signatures from residents in favor of the change.

Disruptions for residents, if any, would be minor. A name change would not impact a house number or zip code, and the U.S. Postal Service would continue to deliver mail addressed to the old street name for a decade. Property deeds would not be affected, as they are recorded by a parcel number, according to the Rename Taney Coalition.

The group maintains it also has support from residents and showed this board photocopies of a petition signed by Taney Street neighbors. One of the supporters is Richard Mays, who lives on North Taney in Council President Darrell L. Clarke’s district.

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Mays told this board that he’s wanted the street name changed ever since he learned about the chief justice while a student at John Wanamaker Junior High School. While Mays hasn’t always lived on Taney, his family has been on the street for decades.

Instead of honoring a disgraced justice, advocates have asked that the street be named after Caroline LeCount, who is sometimes referred to as Philadelphia’s Rosa Parks. Nearly a century before the Montgomery bus boycott, LeCount helped to desegregate Philadelphia’s streetcars.

Alongside her fiancé, the activist, educator, Union army officer, and baseball star Octavius Catto, LeCount took part in every major civil rights struggle of the 1860s, including passage of the 15th Amendment. Her advocacy and leadership continued for decades after Catto’s 1871 murder; she even assisted W.E.B. DuBois in writing The Philadelphia Negro, one of the first examples of statistical sociology.

Unlike Taney, LeCount is a native Philadelphian who represents the best of the city. She is worthy of the honor. City Council needs to make the change.