Ewan Palmer

By Ewan Palmer

News Reporter

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The House of Representatives has voted to remove all statues of Confederates from inside the Capitol building. The legislation passed 285-120.

All those who voted against are Republican representatives, of which there are currently 211. As expected, dozens of Republicans did back the bill, with 67 voting in favor of it.

Every Democratic member to vote supported the legislation; two did not vote.

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Statues proposed for removal include those of former Vice President John Cadlwell Calhoun, James Paul Clarke, a former governor of Arkansas, and Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator from Mississippi and president of the Confederate States of America.

The bill would also replace a bust of Roger Taney, the Supreme Court judge who authored the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford ruling, which prevented Black Americans from becoming U.S. citizens, with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.

After the vote House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, said in a statement: "Today, the House took a stand against injustice and sent a message to the American people that symbols of slavery, segregation, and sedition are not welcome in the halls of Congress."

"I am pleased to see our bill to remove hate pass in the House. Even though we cannot change our history, we can work to affirm the ideals that our country was built on: justice and equality for all," Hoyer added.

"Symbols of slavery and segregation denigrate our Capitol and have no place here. Individuals who worked to enshrine or perpetuate the bondage of African Americans, or prevent them from achieving full and equal rights, are not worthy of being honored in our country."

A number of GOP representatives condemned the move as "cancel culture" and Democrats pushing Critical Race Theory.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House Minority Leader, was one of the 67 from his party to vote in favor of removing the statues.

Speaking on the House floor, said he supported the bill but called the move an example of Democrats trying to replace the "racism of the past with the racism" of Critical Race Theory.

"Critical Race Theory is the governing ideology [of the entire] Biden administration. By advocating for it, Democrats continue to fuel hatred and division across the country," he said.

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Republican Matt Rosendale, for Montana, who voted against the bill said: "The South lost, and our Union is strong today, and the great victory of our constitutional government in the Civil War over slavery and secession should be celebrated.

"Unfortunately, Democrats, animated by the Critical Race Theory concepts of structural racism, microaggressions, and a United States based solely on white supremacy, have chosen to remove statues that underscore the failures of our pre-1861 Constitution. Make no mistake, those who won the West and George Washington are next."

Fellow GOP member Alabama's Mo Brooks condemned H.R. 3005 as a bill by "intolerant Socialist Democrats" seeking to seek to take down "undesirable" statues.

"Cancel culture and historical revisionism are precursors to dictatorial government and the destruction of individual liberty and freedom by elitists who claim they know more than regular citizens and, hence, should be empowered to dictate what regular citizens can and cannot think or do," Brooks said.

Full list of House Republicans who voted against removing Confederate statues

Correction 06/30/21, 8.16 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to correct the entry for Michael Turner.

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