AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office says “substantially inaccurate historical statements” don’t belong on display in the state Capitol amid debate over a Confederate marker that rejects slavery as an underlying cause of the Civil War.
The statement Monday follows conflicting accounts of a meeting between Abbott and a black Texas lawmaker over a 1959 plaque titled “Children of the Confederacy Creed.”
Democratic state Rep. Eric Johnson says he left Friday’s meeting under the impression the governor supports removing the plaque. Abbott has denied that characterization.
But Abbott spokeswoman Ciara Matthews says the governor expressed that inaccurate statements “are not appropriate” for permanent display. She says that’s why they’ve asked the State Preservation Board to now study the plaque.
It’s one of about a dozen Confederate markers around the Texas Capitol.
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