In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that African-Americans were not citizens of the United States. Yet within 18 years, Black Americans would not only have citizenship, but would be guaranteed the right to...

PBS features a summary of the landmark Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sanford which ruled that African Americans are not American citizens, and therefore could not sue in federal court. Decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

This encyclopedia article is a brief biography of Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his freedom. His case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he lost.

Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and...

Get a glimpse of what is housed in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The interactive tour highlights the struggle and introduces key historical figures such as Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, Dred Scott, and Frederick...

An exhaustive, searchable website with original court records on 300 legal petitions for freedom by people of color, originally filed in St. Louis courts between 1814 and 1860.

(1777-1864) "Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who gave the decision in the Dred Scott Case." -Foster, 1921