Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision

Charles Gaines’ Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision is a performance-based installation in which Gaines transforms the original text of the landmark 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case of Dred Scott vs. Sanford, which denied U.S. citizenship to people of African ancestry. Many see the ruling as one of the most controversial decisions of the Supreme Court, authorizing racism and irrevocably altering the course of the country’s social, cultu...