AUSTIN – Recently, the “Children of the Confederacy Creed” plaque was removed from the Texas Capitol, where it had been on display for the last sixty years. The plaque was originally placed in the Texas Capitol in 1959 and stated, “The Civil War was not a rebellion and its underlying cause was not to sustain slavery.” Its removal came after a unanimous vote by the Texas State Preservation Board.
Members in favor of the plaque’s removal included: Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, newly-elected House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, Board Member, Alethea Swann Bugg, and State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano).
State Rep. Eric Johnson (D-Dallas), has been the leading voice calling for the removal of the plaque. He first called for its removal in August 2017, shortly after the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the months leading up to the plaque’s removal, Rep. Johnson met with Gov. Abbott, solicited an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and sent multiple letters to the Texas State Preservation Board. Leading up to the vote, several prominent state leaders echoed Rep. Johnson’s calls for the plaque’s removal, including Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus.
After the vote on Friday, Rep. Johnson released the following statement: “While I’m glad the State Preservation Board voted to remove the ‘Children of the Confederacy Creed’ plaque from the Texas Capitol, none of us in state government should be high-fiving each other or patting ourselves on the back today. The plaque should never have been put up by the Legislature in the first place, and it certainly shouldn’t have taken sixty years to remove it. And that’s on Republicans and Democrats alike, to be perfectly honest,” stated Representative Johnson.
