RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The portrait of former North Carolina Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin will be removed from the state’s high court.
Ruffin’s portrait will be replaced with the seal of the Supreme Court, according to an announcement from outgoing Chief Justice Cheri Beasley.
Ruffin served as chief justice from 1833 to 1852 and owned slaves. Ruffin is also said to have authored opinions as chief justice defending the institution of slavery and was regarded even by his contemporaries as “particularly brutal” in his ownership of slaves, a release from the NC Judicial Branch.
The decision of the Court comes just weeks after an official recommendation was submitted by an advisory commission established by the Court in 2018 to explore the issue.
“It is important that our courtroom spaces convey the highest ideals of justice and that people who come before our Court feel comfortable knowing that they will be treated fairly. The Court’s decision to remove the Ruffin portrait is a tremendous reflection of the progress that has been made since the time Chief Justice Ruffin served on the Court,” said Beasley. “We thank the members of the advisory commission for their thoughtful deliberation over the last year and for their recommendations.”
The Supreme Court formed the Advisory Commission on Portraits in 2018 following the publication of an op-ed calling for the removal of Ruffin’s portrait. The commission was tasked with considering “matters related to portraits of former justices” and submitting final recommendations to the Court by Dec. 31, 2019. That deadline was later extended by the Court.
The commission submitted its final report to the Supreme Court on Dec. 14. The commission submitted its final report and recommendations to the Supreme Court on Dec. 14.
Calls for his legacy to be re-examined and for the removal of the prominent, larger-than-life portrait from the Supreme Court’s courtroom often cite Ruffin’s most notorious opinion, State v. Mann.
In that case, in which an enslaved woman had been shot in the back after fleeing a brutal whipping, Ruffin rejected the notion that a slave owner could be guilty of assault or battery of an enslaved person, writing, “The power of the master must be absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect… This discipline belongs to the state of slavery.”
A smaller portrait of Ruffin was removed from the Orange County courthouse earlier this year as was a statue of Ruffin in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, a building which once bore his name.
