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As the country grapples with the legacy of systemic racism, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today voted to remove racist and Confederate imagery from the United States Capitol. The House passed H.R. 7573 by a vote of 305-to-113.

“Leaders of the Confederacy endorsed race-based enslavement and were traitors to the United States. Any glorification of Confederate leaders is deeply shameful and only serves to uphold a system of oppression against Black people. The United States Capitol is the people’s building and it is reprehensible that racists are exalted in a country where ‘all men are created equal,’ as the Constitution lays out,” said Rep. Pingree. “I have long supported the removal of Confederate imagery from government buildings and property, and I am proud to vote in favor of removing these hateful symbols from the U.S. Capitol. This is a small, but long overdue step toward dismantling systemic racism within our government.”

H.R. 7573 would remove all Confederate statues from display in the Capitol. The bill also replaces the bust of Roger Taney—who presided over racist decisions on the Supreme Court—with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice. 

Pingree recently called for the renaming of military bases that bear the names of Confederate leaders. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, she supported provisions in the FY 2021 budget bill that would remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol complex. 

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