Wall in the Capitol without historically inaccurate plaque. (Courtesy Rep. Eric Johnson)
An inaccurate historical marker was removed from the Texas Capitol in Austin over the weekend. State Rep. Eric Johnson has been campaigning to have the racist marker removed for more than a year. The Texas State Preservation Board voted unanimously to remove it on Friday.
The Children of the Confederacy Creed was placed in the Capitol in 1959, almost 100 years after the Civil War, to justify the war as having no racist causes. It was hung during the Civil Rights movement at a time when there were only white legislators.
Johnson sent out a picture of the wall where the plaque had hung taken on Sunday, Jan. 13. The holes where it was bolted to the wall have been filled in and the area freshly painted.
We should also note how hard-working our local legislator is — he was at the Capitol on a Sunday toiling away. He also sent a picture of himself with the plaque (below), which means his Chief of Staff, even harder working Mary Elbanna, had to be there as well to take the picture.
If the state is looking for a repository for the marker that will put it into its proper historical context, the new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, opening in the West End on Sept. 17, 2020, might be a perfect place for this state-sanctioned racist artifact.
A number of Confederate statues remain on the Capitol grounds including a statue of Jefferson Davis.
— David Taffet
Rep. Eric Johnson with the offending plaque before its removal.
