State Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, debates Tuesday with state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, regarding Creighton's bill that calls for restricting the ability of state agencies, local governments and public universities to remove or alter monuments, memorials, plaques, street names and other items named for historical events or people, including those tied to the Confederacy. [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN] ▲ State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, speaks Tuesday about his bill on historical monuments. "I don't believe Texas should be a place where we remove, destroy or eradicate the ugly of our past," he told fellow lawmakers. [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN] ▲ Crews remove the Jefferson Davis statue from the University of Texas Main Mall in 2015. The statue is now displayed in UT's Briscoe Center for American History. [JAY JANNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN] ▲

The Texas Senate gave approval along party lines Tuesday to legislation that would sharply limit the ability of state agencies, local governments and public universities to remove or alter monuments that honor events or people of historical significance, including those linked with the Confederacy.

Senate Bill 1663 advanced to the House. The measure, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, would require a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to remove, relocate or alter — including altering to maintain historical accuracy — a monument at least 25 years old on state property or the campus of a public university or college. Changes involving newer monuments would need formal action by the governing body or state official who governs the agency.

City councils, commissioners courts, school boards and other units of local government would have to vote by a supermajority to remove or alter a monument at least 25 years old; they could take such action on newer monuments with a simple majority.

Creighton, whose ancestor was a member of Terry's Texas Rangers, a Confederate volunteer brigade, said monuments help society remember the good, bad and ugly of history. "I don't believe Texas should be a place where we remove, destroy or eradicate the ugly of our past," he said, noting that he put the Confederacy's notion of white supremacy in that category. "We need to teach from our past, educate from our past."

The measure defines monuments and memorials broadly to include statues, portraits, plaques, seals, symbols and cenotaphs, as well as the names of bridges, parks, streets and areas.

The Senate's two African American members, Democrats Royce West of Dallas and Borris Miles of Houston, urged Creighton to pull down his bill, to no avail.

West, after reading passages from Texas' decision to secede from the Union that describe blacks as inferior to whites, told Creighton: "I think you do a disservice to Texas with this particular bill." At one point, the debate between West and Creighton morphed into a discussion of whether Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was a traitor.

The House also is considering a measure aimed at making it harder to remove monuments. House Bill 583, authored by Rep. James White, R-Hillister, would prohibit removal or relocation of monuments that are at least 40 years old. The bill was approved 5-2 last month by the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee.

The legislative efforts come as various cities, school districts and other entities around the state seek to scrub their jurisdictions of monuments, memorials, street names and school names that they say represent a racist past.

Creighton decried the trend, and, during a hearing last month, he singled out his alma mater, the University of Texas, for relocating a monument to "a dark corner," an apparent reference to a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, that was removed from the Main Mall in 2015 and later placed in UT's Briscoe Center for American History.

UT followed that up with the 2016 removal of an inscription honoring the Confederacy and Southern pride from the South Mall. And in 2017, UT removed statues of three Confederate leaders and one son of a Confederate officer from their outdoor pedestals.

A Confederate statue in San Antonio's Travis Park was removed in 2017. Also that year, a statue of Lee was taken down in Dallas. Meanwhile, Land Commissioner George P. Bush and the city of San Antonio want to move the Alamo cenotaph, an empty tomb etched with the names of the Alamo's defenders. Creighton tacked on an amendment to his bill that would prohibit any relocation.

The measure would allow a governing board of a public college or university to rename or alter a monument in recognition of philanthropic gifts, provided that the institution's governing board has adopted rules on such procedures.

Two amendments offered by Miles were adopted unanimously: one establishing a seven-member Senate committee to review works of art in the Senate chamber and recommend continued display, replacement and new works; and one reinstating an advisory committee of the State Preservation Board to review all monuments on the Capitol grounds.

Representatives of the Travis County Commissioners Court and the cities of Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Dallas registered opposition to Creighton's bill but did not testify at its April 11 hearing.

Supporters of the bill who testified for it included Brandon Burkhart, president of This Is Texas Freedom Force, and Terry Ayers, a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas and of Descendants of Confederate Veterans, who decried what he called a movement by "a radical minority to eradicate" Confederate monuments and memorials.

Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, noted during the hearing that SB 1663 would tell local governments how to operate, to which Creighton replied: "We're here to honor and respect local control. We're also here to act when there's local out of control."