Saturday, January 24, 2026

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCULPTURE: CIVIL RIGHTS

 

Kim Lum's The Space Between Scott And Plessy in Laumeier Sculpture Park. The two busts face each other. Dred Scott was the slave in St. Louis who sued for his freedom, leading to one of the most reprehensible decisions in the history of our Supreme Court (there are recent competitors). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott . Homer Plessy was a mixed race man in New Orleans who boarded  an all-white train car, resulting in a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was lawful if facilities were equivalent, the notorious separate but equal doctrine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson . These are parts of our history the current administration would like to suppress.                   

1 comment:

MELODY JACOB said...

This sculpture really makes you pause and reflect on how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. It’s powerful to see Dred Scott and Homer Plessy facing each other like that.