CHANGE OF HEART

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan: Remove Confederate-Era Statue From State House

Hogan previously wouldn’t back a removal of Roger B. Taney monument.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ordered on Tuesday that the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney be removed from the grounds of the State House in Annapolis. “While we cannot hide from our history—nor should we—the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history,” the Republican governor said in a statement. The declaration comes after deadly violence at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Just two years ago, Hogan was opposed to removing Confederate monuments, saying it amounted to “political correctness run amok.” Taney wrote the majority opinion in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, which ruled that African-Americans could not be U.S. citizens. North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, said on Tuesday that he, too, wants Confederate monuments removed from state grounds.