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Dallas lawmaker officially asks Texas to remove Confederate plaque from Capitol building

Rep. Eric Johnson filed the request ahead of his meeting this week with Gov. Greg Abbott to discuss the Capitol's Confederate monuments.

AUSTIN — Ahead of his meeting with the governor this week, Dallas Rep. Eric Johnson has filed an official request with the state to remove the Confederate plaque outside his Capitol office.

The plaque, erected by the "Children of the Confederacy" in 1959, features the group's creed, including a "pledge...to study and teach the truths of history (one of the most important of which is, that the War between the States was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery)."

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Johnson, a Democrat who has spoken out against the Capitol's many Confederate monuments before, calls the plaque offensive and false. He first asked for its removal in August. Several other lawmakers, including Republican Speaker of the House Joe Straus, have since also asked it to be taken down.

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On Monday, Johnson filed an official "building change request" with the State Preservation Board. He told The Dallas Morning News he has no preference where it is relocated "so long as it is not a public space of honor. A museum with accompanying explanatory material makes sense to me."

In his request, Johnson asked for his request to be approved "immediately." He added simply, "It is historically inaccurate."

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The preservation board's staff did not immediately answer questions about whether Johnson's request could be honored immediately or whether Gov. Greg Abbott would have to convene an official meeting to vote on the request. Johnson cited an agency rule in his request that changes to "furnishings and artwork [in the Capitol] must be approved by the curator."

Abbott agreed to the meeting with Johnson in the wake of the deadly racial clashes in Charlottesville, Va. At the time, Abbott condemned "racist and hate-filled violence" in any form, and added, "But we must remember that our history isn't perfect. If we do not learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it. Instead of trying to bury our past, we must learn from it and ensure it doesn't happen again.

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"Tearing down monuments won't erase our nation's past, and it doesn't advance our nation's future."