AUSTIN – On Saturday, Jan. 12, the “Children of the Confederacy Creed” plaque was removed from the Texas Capitol, where it was displayed for the last sixty years. The plaque was originally placed in the Texas Capitol in 1959 and states the Civil War was not a rebellion and its underlying cause was not to sustain slavery. The plaque was removed after the Texas State Preservation Board voted unanimously on Friday, Jan. 11, to remove the plaque from the Texas Capitol.
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 Rep. Johnson.
Members of the Texas State Preservation Board who voted in favor of the plaque’s removal included Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, newly elected Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, Citizen Board Member Alethea Swann Bugg, and Texas State Representative Jeff Leach (R-Plano).
Texas State Representative Eric Johnson (D-Dallas) was the leading voice calling for the removal of the plaque. He first called for the plaque’s 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 Governor Abbott, solicited an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and sent multiple letters to the Texas State Preservation Board staff and governing board members.
Leading up to the vote, several prominent state leaders echoed Rep. Johnson’s calls for the plaque’s removal, including Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus.
