Philadelphia will rename Taney Street after trailblazing educator Caroline LeCount
After years of advocacy from residents, Philadelphia will rename a street that's currently named for controversial Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, who authored one of the most infamous opinions in the court's history.
After more than 160 years, Taney Street in Philadelphia will be renamed to LeCount Street in honor of Caroline LeCount, the first Black woman to pass Philadelphia's teaching exam — and who some have called Philly's own Rosa Parks.
Philadelphia City Council announced the legislation in October at a press conference with the Rename Taney Coalition, Councilmember Jeffery Young, and City Council President Kenyatta Johnson. Both members' districts include sections of Taney Street.
Council passed the bill in its legislative session on Thursday.
LeCount and her fiancé, Octavius Catto, fought against a law allowing segregation on horse-drawn streetcars in the city.
"She would hop onto a streetcar. They would put her off the streetcar," author Fasaha Traylor said in 2022. "But she kept coming back and back. She was persistent."
The law was eventually overturned in 1867.
LeCount and Catto never got married, as he was shot and killed near his home on 8th and South streets after riots broke out in the city on Election Day on Oct. 10, 1871. Catto has since been honored with a statue outside City Hall. LeCount became a school principal at just 22 years old and led a school that was later named after Catto.
A drawing of LeCount was on display as City Council renamed the street.
Who was Roger B. Taney?
Taney Street was named for former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a Maryland native with no major ties to Philadelphia who led the court for 28 years.
Taney authored the majority opinion in the 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, a case where Scott sought freedom due to having lived in a free state. Taney wrote that because Scott was Black, he was not a citizen and did not have standing to sue. African Americans "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," the decision said.
A year after the decision, City Council renamed the street along with 970 others in one ordinance passed in 1858, the Rename Taney Coalition said.
At that time, the street was called Minor Street before it took on Taney's name.
Now in 2024, the coalition said residents on the street largely supported the change to remove Taney's name. A descendant of Taney supported the decision as well.
"Renaming Taney Street doesn't solve anything about the vast and terrible legacy of my ancestor; however, it is one small prong in a multi-prong approach to making our streets and community better in so many ways," Joy Taney said in 2024.
Congress removed a bust of Taney in 2022 and replaced it with one depicting the late Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The soon-to-be LeCount Street runs north-south between 26th and 27th streets. There are sections of Taney Street in South Philadelphia, and it picks up again in Fairmount and into North Philadelphia.
A spokesperson for Johnson said the first LeCount Street signs will go up sometime in 2025.