AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A black Democratic lawmaker in Texas is renewing calls to immediately remove a Confederate plaque after the state’s attorney general said doing so doesn’t require a legislative vote.
Rep. Eric Johnson of Dallas said Wednesday the state “could get out the screwdrivers today” following the opinion issued by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office.
The plaque rejects slavery as an underlying cause of the Civil War and is one of about a dozen Confederate markers in and around the Texas Capitol.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled support for taking down the plaque. But Abbott has said he won’t order it removed and instead wants the Legislature to act.
The plaque is titled “Children of the Confederacy Creed” and was installed in 1959.
