School renamed for Marshall

UPPER MARLBORO (AP) – Students who left Roger B. Taney Middle School in Prince George’s County Thursday reported to a new school Friday.

Or, at least, a school with a new name.

The county school board voted Thursday night to rename Taney in honor of Thurgood Marshall.

The board’s unanimous decision was greeted with a standing ovation from an audience of students, parents and teachers who had opposed keeping Taney’s name on the school near Andrews Air Force Base.

Taney and Marshall were both Maryland natives and both members of the Supreme Court. But there the resemblance ends.

Taney was chief justice in 1857, when he wrote the Dred Scott decision, which held that slaves were property and could not become U.S. citizens.

Marshall, who died in January, was a civil rights champion and successfully argued the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case before the high court.