The View From Here: Judge’s statue shows immortality can be fleeting
U.S. Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller was known for many things in his day, but his connection to racial injustice is not worthy of honor.
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It’s only been seven years since the late Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller was immortalized with a bronze statue outside the Kennebec County Courthouse and now it’s coming down, which may set a record for the shortest immortalization in history.
Last week, the Kennebec County commissioners voted unanimously that a depiction of Fuller, who helped lay the legal foundation for a half-century of racial segregation with the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, did not send the right message about the county’s commitment to equal justice under law.
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Tuesday, February 16
On Tuesday, Kennebec County commissioners will discuss the future of the Justice Melville Weston Fuller statue that sits outside of the courthouse. Justice Fuller was born in Augusta and served on the Supreme Court. His legacy is controversial, though, because of how he voted in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896, saying that segregation was constitutional. It s not clear what would happen to the statue if commissioners decide to remove it.