Dallas Lawmaker Wants Confederate Plaque Outside His Office Removed ‘immediately'

AUSTIN — A few months ago, on the cusp of his fourth legislative session, Rep. Eric Johnson got a plumb Capitol perk he's wanted for nearly seven years.The Dallas Democrat had long officed in the Capitol extension — a modern, subterranean addition built far underneath the House and Senate chambers where lawmakers meet and make laws. But on Jan. 10, 2017, he finally exchanged his underground office for much smaller digs in the main building, just steps from the massive rotunda that supports the Capitol's famous pink granite dome and the Goddess of Liberty statute atop it.He was elated. Well, mostly. Just steps from his door, on the north wall that hugs the rotunda room, hangs a simple plaque. Mounted in 1959, during the height of the Civil Rights Era, the plaque denies the South seceded from the Union over slavery and rejects the idea that the forces know for their "rebel yell" had mounted, in fact, a rebellion.The plaque has hung there for nearly sixty years. Now, after seven months in his new office, Johnson wants it gone.  Continue reading...