by Todd J. Gillman

WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday to remove Confederate statues and the bust of the chief justice who wrote the infamous Dred Scott decision on slavery, with most Republicans opposing the move, including 16 Texans.

The other six Texas Republicans backed the measure, including the only Black Republican in the House, Rep. Will Hurd.

“Confederate statues don’t belong in the U.S. Capitol. Anyone committing treason against this great experiment we call America in order to keep slavery alive doesn’t deserve a place in a building that represents freedom and unity,” tweeted Hurd, a former undercover CIA officer who did not seek a fourth term this year.

The vote was 305-113. Only Republicans voted no, and 71 joined a unanimous Democratic caucus.

Apart from Hurd, the Texas Republicans who voted to remove the Confederate statues were Reps. Michael Burgess of Flower Mound, Van Taylor of Plano, Dan Crenshaw of Houston, Michael McCaul of Austin, and Pete Olson of Sugar Land.

Crenshaw was a Navy SEAL. Olson also served in the Navy. Taylor is a Marine.

“Republicans won the civil war. That’s our history. Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history. I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence,” Crenshaw tweeted.

“Olson thought it was the right thing to do for his district, the most diverse in the nation,” said his chief of staff, Melissa Kelly.

As a state senator, Taylor called for removal of the “Children of the Confederacy Creed” plaque in the Texas Capitol. In Washington, he said, he stops at the Texas statues – Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston – to share stories of their achievements when he gives tours to constituents.

“I want all Americans, regardless of their background or what region of the country they are from, to feel that same sense of pride when reflecting upon and celebrating our nation. Tributes to slavery contradict the blessings and freedoms that make America great,” he said.

(Austin, however, owned slaves and resisted Mexico’s effort to end slavery in Texas before independence.)

Burgess, like Crenshaw, emphasized that in the late 1800s, Southern politics was dominated by Democrats.

“The statues in question were members of the Democratic Party who put forward laws that enslaved, prevented from voting, and prohibited equal rights for Americans. We should have statues of Americans who worked to better the lives of every American and preserve the Republic,” he said in a statement.

One Texas Republican who voted against the measure, Rep. Chip Roy of Austin, asserted that “Democrats love to play politics with race.”

Rep. Roger Williams’ opponent quickly sought to make a campaign issue out of the Austin Republican’s vote against removal.

“We should hold no place of honor for racists and traitors,” tweeted Democrat Julie Oliver. “Does Roger Williams even know what a vote to protect a pro-slavery monument means?”

On Thursday, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, defended his vote by arguing that, while he agrees that “many of these statues are no longer appropriate for the U.S. Capitol,” he would leave it to the states that donated the statues to decide how to present their images going forward. “Determining which statues and monuments glorify and advance racism – and which are needed as harsh, invaluable lessons to future generations of Americans – that’s no easy task.”

Democrats, particularly non-white lawmakers, insist that Confederate statues clearly do glorify a white supremacist history.

The legislation calls for replacing the bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney with that of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the Supreme Court.

Taney authored the 1857 Dred Scott ruling, which held that Black people didn’t have the rights of citizens. His bust is on display in the old Supreme Court chamber on the Senate side of the Capitol.

The Congressional Black Caucus had long demanded removal of Confederate statues at the Capitol. Lawmakers were quick to note the death last week of Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights icon who suffered a skull fracture during a 1965 march for voting rights in Selma, Ala.

“Just imagine what it feels like as an African American to know that my ancestors built the Capitol, but yet there are monuments to the very people that enslaved my ancestors,” said caucus chair Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif.

Earlier this week the House approved an annual defense bill that requires the Pentagon to rename 10 Army installations named for Confederate generals, including Fort Hood in Central Texas, the largest U.S. Army post in the world.

Republicans who opposed Wednesday’s vote argued that removing the statues could make it impossible to honor anyone with a blemished biography, leaving very few heroes to venerate.

Under the bill, 11 Confederate statues would go to the Smithsonian or be returned to the states that donated them. Most have been on display for a century or so.

Some of the statues at issue were going to disappear soon anyway, according to The Hill.

Arkansas already planned to replace statues of secessionists James Paul Clarke, a senator and governor, and attorney Uriah Milton Rose with statues of musician Johnny Cash and civil rights activist Daisy Gatson Bates.

The bill also calls for removal of artwork depicting the likes of John Breckinridge, a U.S. vice president and senator from Kentucky who was expelled from the Senate after joining the Confederate army.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had already taken steps to deemphasize Confederate imagery, to the extent she could to do so without legislation.

Last month she ordered removal of portraits of four speakers who served in Confederate leadership or fought for the South.

Published here.