Dallas

Calls to Remove Confederate Markers Return to Texas Capitol

A top Texas Republican wants the accuracy of memorials around the state Capitol reviewed amid calls to remove Confederate monuments.

A spokesman for Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said Thursday that the powerful GOP leader will work with Dallas Democratic Rep. Eric Johnson, who this week singled out one Confederate plaque as "indefensible on historical grounds."

The nearly 60-year-old plaque rejects that slavery was the "underlying cause" of the Civil War. It is one of nearly a dozen Confederate monuments and markers around the Texas Capitol.

Efforts around the U.S. to remove Confederate monuments have intensified in the wake of last weekend's deadly confrontation at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

Several Texas lawmakers requested a similar review of Confederate markers following the 2015 shooting of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina.

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