Finally, Taney Street no more | Editorial

Progress has rarely been timely in this country. Despite asserting “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, it took roughly “four score and seven years” for America to abolish slavery, and amend the Constitution accordingly. It took another 100 years after that to end Jim Crow, integrate our military and schools, and establish the right to vote for all Americans in every state.

In that context, waiting four years to rename Taney Street — once a concerted effort came together — is just a short delay for modest reform. Still, kudos to City Council. The change is welcome and long overdue.

The street, which extends across several disjointed stretches in North and South Philadelphia, was likely named to honor Roger B. Taney, the Maryland-born chief justice of the United States who wrote the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. The 1857 ruling, long considered the U.S. Supreme Court’s nadir, formally established white supremacy as the law of the land.

Scott, alongside his wife Harriett, had sued for his emancipation after spending years of his life living in Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was illegal. Taney and six other justices ruled against Scott, claiming no person of African ancestry was entitled to any rights at all. In fact, Taney argued, it was the slave owners whose rights had been violated by Congress restricting slavery in the first place through the Missouri Compromise.

A year after the decision, Philadelphia’s Minor Street was renamed. While the region had its share of abolitionists, the city’s antebellum political class was extremely deferential to the Southern planter-slaver aristocrats, and members of some of the most prominent families of the era fought for the Confederacy instead of the Union. Philadelphia resident Pierce Butler, the grandson of his namesake Founding Father, was even arrested for supplying arms to the South. The Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch went so far as to declare that the color line was more stringently enforced in Pennsylvania than in the South — and it was meant as a compliment.

Still, the street’s fraught history would have remained mostly forgotten had it not been for Mo’ne Davis, who stepped into the national spotlight after she became the first girl to pitch a shutout in the 2014 Little League World Series. Her team? The Taney Dragons, named after the street (and rechristened the Philadelphia Dragons in 2020).

So why did it take so long to rename Taney Street?

Under past Council President Darrell L. Clarke, progress on changing the name was hard to come by. Clarke raised concerns about deeds, mail delivery, and public support. Even as the Rename Taney Coalition of residents and near neighbors met every hurdle, no legislation ever garnered Clarke’s support.

It did not take long after his retirement last year for Council’s current leader, Kenyatta Johnson, to use his new influence to make a move. At a news conference in October, Johnson said he had heard about the issue from constituents, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and even his wife. In November, Council voted to rename the street after Caroline LeCount, a local civil rights leader.

Unlike Taney, LeCount is a name Philadelphians can be proud of. Known by some as Philadelphia’s Rosa Parks, LeCount and her fiancé, Octavius V. Catto, were formative figures in the fight to pass the Reconstruction amendments, which ended slavery and established the right to vote for Black men. Even after Catto’s murder, LeCount continued to assist the community. She spent her life educating Black children in Philadelphia and helped sociologist W.E.B. DuBois with his landmark study of the city’s predominantly Black 7th Ward.

It was fitting that the first Black woman to serve as mayor, Cherelle L. Parker, signed the change into law. New LeCount Street signs are now being installed.

Beyond being a proud moment for the city, the successful effort to rename Taney Street is a reminder that things can change. And that, like LeCount and Catto, we should work toward a brighter and fairer future.