The Dred Scott Decision (1857)
Dred and Harriet Scott sued for their freedom after living in free
territories with their enslaver. The U.S. Supreme Court delivered one of its most infamous and deeply racist rulings— that Scott was merely “private property” with no right to sue, ruling that Black people were not citizens and possessed “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”RELATED CONTENT: Barbados Prime Minister Unveils Expanded Caribbean Reparations Plan In Accra, Ghana