It is very important that as African American's we know and understand our past in order for us to truly understand where we are headed in the future....
Today's history lesson is: Dred Scott Case!
The Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision showed the Civil War's inevitably. In 1847, Scott went to trail in Missouri to gain freedom for himself and his wife Harriet. Under the Missouri Compromise, Scott claimed he was entitled to freedom because his master Dr. John Emerson (since deceased) had taken him into Illinois and other free areas. When a lower court ruled that Scott and his family were free, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the decision, and the United States Circuit in Missouri upheld Missouri Supreme Court's decision. Scott and his lawyers appealed it to the United States Supreme Court, but fared even worse at the hands of the highest court in the land.
Stacked with proslavery justices, the Supreme Court decided that, because Scott was African American, he wasn't a citizen and therefore couldn't sue anybody. To top it off, the Court ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. While the South cheered, abolitionists struggled to remain optimistic.
(taken from African American History for Dummies by Ronda Racha Penrice)
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