ST. LOUIS — There's a new memorial at Dred Scott's gravesite in St. Louis, built to be a more fitting remembrance of the man who changed U.S. history.
Minister Brenda Young, with the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, started a ceremony for the new memorial on Saturday morning at Calvary Cemetery.
"We are here to give tribute to the life, legacy and victories of a man who could have, like so many others of notable calling and character, been lost to us and to history," she said.
A 9-foot monument etched with scripture, bible verses and a picture of the man who changed our country now sits where a 2-foot-tall headstone once was.
"It has evolved from a simple grave marker, something often withheld from the graves of the enslaved to a place for commemoration and contemplation," Young said.
For 66 years, all Dred Scott had in the St. Louis cemetery was a modest gravesite, according to Dred Madison with the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
"Slavery was a stain on this country that affected everyone, no matter what creed or color," he said.
Scott's descendants, specifically his great-great-granddaughter, Lynne Jackson, believed that wasn't enough for a man whose name is synonymous with the Supreme Court decision that denied his bid for freedom in 1857.
"Our ancestors lived the American nightmare so that we can live the American dream," Madison said.
Jackson said the former slave's grave is among the top three most visited sites at the cemetery. That's why they believe this new memorial will allow people to truly reflect on Scott's legacy in American history.
"We celebrate the life of a man who willingly placed himself in harm's way, a man who paved the way for change, change that improved the lives of others," Peggy Lewis LeCompte, with the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, said.
While many gathered Saturday to focus on the past, they also addressed the present, with the belief for a brighter future.
"Our hope is that this memorial will forever stand as a tribute to the desire for freedom manifested," Young said.
The dedication was originally scheduled for the anniversary of Scott's death on Sept. 17, but was delayed due to weather.
According to Jackson, coming up on Oct. 14, a new headstone will be revealed of Scott's wife, Harriet.
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