Texas House Speaker Joe Straus requested on Tuesday that a contentious Confederate plaque be removed from the Capitol.
The plaque, erected in 1959, asserts that the Civil War was “not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery.”
“This is not accurate, and Texans are not well-served by incorrect information about our history,” Straus said in a letter to the State Preservation Board, which oversees the Capitol grounds.
Straus added in his letter that “confederate monuments and plaques are understandably important to many Texans” but stressed the importance of such landmarks being “accurate and appropriate.”
“The Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque does not meet this standard,” Straus wrote.
State Rep. Eric Johnson (D-Dallas) who has called for the removal of the plaque, told the Texas Tribune he was “pleased” that Straus agrees it should come down.
“I am confident that it will come down soon,” Johnson said.
“We have an obligation to all the people we serve to ensure that our history is described correctly, especially when it comes to a subject as painful as slavery,” Straus said in his letter.
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