; Whereas in Dred Scott v. Sandford, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared, in the Supreme Court’s infamous majority opinion, that Dred Scott, a Black slave, had no rights a white man was bound to respect ; Whereas the Supreme Court in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson embraced legal segregation, which advanced constitutional justification for laws that allowed for separate and supposedly equal public facilities for White and Black Americans; Whereas the Underground Railroad, led by figures such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, played a vital role in resistance by helping enslaved people escape to freedom; Whereas, during the Civil War, Black soldiers made up approximately 10 percent of the Union Army, with approximately 180,000 Black soldiers enlisting to fight for their freedom and the abolition of slavery; Whereas despite facing discrimination and being paid less than White soldiers, Black soldiers played a crucial role in the Union’s victory in the Civil War by risking and in too many instances sacrificing their lives in the fight for the freedom of their fellow man; Whereas the Black soldiers’ participation in the Civil War was not only significant in terms of numbers, but also in terms of the impact their participation had on the fight for racial equality and civil rights, as it challenged the notion that Black Americans were not capable of fighting for their own freedom; Whereas the Civil War, as well as the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, emanated from Black resistance to slavery in the United States; Whereas the abolition of slavery did not end White supremacy; Whereas the period between the end of the Civil War and the civil rights movement was marked by continued discrimination and oppression of African Americans, despite the abolition of slavery