Senate president: Taney remarks weren’t meant to divide

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Maryland’s Senate president says he regrets remarks about the late Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney became a distraction.

The Washington Post reports that a dozen African-American ministers and community activists gathered Monday in Prince George’s County to condemn Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.’s defence of the author of the Dred Scott decision. In a recent letter, Miller criticized the removal of a Taney statue in Annapolis without a public meeting beforehand. He noted the “inflammatory and derogatory language” of the Dred Scott decision, but also stressed Taney’s “prior anti-slavery words and actions.”

Miller said in a statement that he regrets that sharing his “historical perspective” has distracted from “the larger issue we must face together as a nation” and his role to “bring unity and fight for a better Maryland.”

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com