Together at Last

A Longstanding Racial Injustice & a Revolutionary Act of Grace

March 6, 2017, marked the 160th anniversary of the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision. Dred Scott v. Sanford, along with Plessy v. Ferguson (which enshrined the principle of "separate but equal") and Roe v. Wade, form a kind of unholy trinity of Supreme Court rulings which legally declared entire classes of people non-persons.

Yet this infamous decision recently became the occasion for a remarkable act of grace.

First, some historical background: For decades preceding the 1857 decision, the country was torn over the issue of slavery. While actual abolitionists did form a small majority in the North (and ideas of racial equality...