The Value of a Black Life
To paraphrase Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert B. Taney in the landmark Dred Scott decision more than 155 years ago: Martin, as a young black male, had no rights that Zimmerman was bound to respect. No right to the pursuit of happiness. No right to liberty. And finally, tragically, no right to life. In effect, the verdict of the Zimmerman trial deemed Martin’s life to be of no value, and no more worthy of protection under the law today than Scott’s was in 1857. So much for a “post-racial†America.
