The Dred Scott Decision was a landmark Supreme Court case in 1857 that further entrenched slavery in the United States and denied citizenship to Black people. Dred Scott was a slave who had lived in free states and territories where slavery was illegal, but his owner tried to claim him as property in a slave state. The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, ruled that Scott, as a Black person, could not be a citizen of the United States and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court. The decision also declared that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in the territories, effectively invalidating the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

The Dred Scott Decision was a significant blow to the abolitionist movement and helped fuel tensions between the North and South that ultimately led to the Civil War. It is widely considered one of the most infamous and controversial rulings in the history of the Supreme Court and a poignant reminder of the systemic racism and injustice that Black Americans have faced throughout U.S. history.