Eric Conway: Dred and Harriet Scott filed suit for their freedom at this courthouse in 1846. Their case reached the United States Supreme Court and was decided in 1857.

Eric Conway submits this photo from his recent trip to St. Louis.  The plaque reads:

Dred and Harriet Scott filed suit for their freedom at this courthouse in 1846.  Their case reached the United States Supreme Court and was decided in 1857.  The Court ruled that the Scotts and all African Americans were not citizens of the United States. Opposition to the decision was one of the causes of the Civil War and led to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.  The Scotts' struggle for freedom stands as a defining moment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement.