Court portrait of writer of notorious slave ruling reviewed

[Judi Lynn]

Martha Waggoner, Associated Pres
Updated 1:11 pm CST, Saturday, January 18, 2020

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In North Carolina's Supreme Court chamber, above the seat held by the second African American chief justice, hangs a towering painting of a 19th century slave owner and jurist who authored a notorious opinion about the “absolute” rights of slaveholders over the enslaved.

Larger than any other painting in the courtroom, it's a portrait of Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin, who wrote in 1829 that “the power of the master must be absolute, to render the submission of the slave perfect."

But Ruffin's place there is now being re-evaluated.

In October 2018, on the same day that a newspaper op-ed urged the removal of Ruffin's portrait, the state Supreme Court named a commission to review the portraits in the building that houses the court — including Ruffin's.

Two African American chief justices have sat on the bench beneath Ruffin's stare: Henry Frye who served as chief justice for about a year from 1999 to 2000 after 16 years as an associate justice; and Cheri Beasley, who was an associate justice for about seven years before she was appointed as chief justice in 2019.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Court-portrait-of-writer-of-notorious-slave-14986288.php

[TreasonousBastard]

1. The problem with removing his portrait is that 18 Presidents were slave owners...

and some of them were not apologetic about it.

What do we do about them? And the others who we now consider heroic? Do we take Washington, Jefferson and Jackson off our money? (OK, maybe Jackson could go...)

This decision about slavery is abhorrent to us now, but fits within the legal definitions at the time and place of the rulings. And what about other judges who happened to rule for slave owners?

We have this constant quandary over just how we deal with our history. We are not alone among nations with this problem.

[CTyankee]

4. Yes, we should take them off the money and replace them with Sojourner Truth, Booker T.

Washington, Marian Anderson, George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass (some of these might already made it to be pictured on our currency).

And we must tell the entire truth about our white heroes such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

And how about our cultural heroes...the poets and musicians... black and white.

We can have the currency we want to see.

[Nitram]

2. Take it down and burn it.

[appalachiablue]

3. I read articles on his background & Bridget, remove the portrait

Thomas Ruffin of North Carolina, b. 1787, slave owner, slavery fanatic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ruffin



Edmund Ruffin of Virginia, b. 1794, slave owner, secessionist fanatic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Ruffin