After a two-hour verbal battle over how to remember the Civil War and its legacy, Bexar County Commissioners Court on Tuesday banished the Confederate flag from county property, ordering the removal of two plaques with Dixie flag emblems.

The five-member court unanimously agreed to replace the two old plaques with newer markers — one recounting the county’s nine governments since 1718, the other extolling an unsung hero who helped Mexican immigrants win citizenship here in 1897.

Twenty-five speakers gave emotional testimony for or against the proposal, which provides for the relocation of several other monuments and markers at the Bexar County Courthouse complex.

While some residents called the court’s action an insult to their Confederate ancestors and Southern heritage, others pleaded for removal of “symbols of hatred” at a moment in history when there’s national momentum for change — days after South Carolina stopped flying the Southern Cross at its state capital.

With little public debate, the five commissioners endorsed the change as a way to rid the county of hurtful emblems and replace them with contemporary and relevant history lessons.

“We’re simply not going to glorify a symbol which to many people has become a symbol of fear and a symbol of hate,” County Judge Nelson Wolff said.

At least a dozen people, some carrying Confederate flags, spoke out in passionate disagreement.

“Do not whitewash our history,” self-described “Southern boy” George “Bubba” Cheeks said. “I wish to hell everybody could just get along.”

Confederate Cemetery Association President John McCammon, a brigade leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said removing the markers was “erasing history,” “an insult to my heritage” and “more scary than McCarthy.”

Several Confederate flag-backers said their banner had been hijacked by wrongdoers, and they vehemently denied slavery was the main cause of the Civil War.

But Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert, the county’s first black commissioner, drew applause when he said the time for “glorifying” slavery and racism “is coming to an end.”

“The vestiges and the history of that (slavery) should be put in a museum and in context. These courthouse Confederate markers are out of context,” Calvert said.

His position was backed by representatives of the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens and Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina.

Some black witnesses gave moving accounts of their lifelong fears of Confederate icons. Resident Becky Brenner started it off by blasting the Confederate flags as “incredibly horrible symbols of hatred.”

“The state and nation are watching,” added state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, who backed the court’s move.

Although the discussion echoed the national debate over Confederate memorials, it also had an administrative purpose. Under state rules for grants for the just-completed restoration of the courthouse, the county must maintain “an appropriate landscape plan” that’s due for an update.

As part of that plan, in 2013 all markers at the courthouse including those approved by the Texas Historical Commission were assessed for accuracy and relevancy. In recent years, during renovations at the courthouse and Main Plaza, several markers were moved or stored.

Among them is a city-owned statue of St. Anthony that was moved from outside the courthouse to near San Fernando Cathedral. However, questions remain about the fate of several markers — including those to be removed — and court action was required to replace them.

Least controversial of the moves was that of the wooden U.S. Navy monument and bell, which will be redesigned and installed at the northwest corner of the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center. The “Still on Patrol” marker honors officers and sailors lost on 52 submarines in World War II. The bell is rung only at an annual ceremony.

Tuesday’s controversy centered on two plaques with Confederate tributes — an unofficial marker at 126 E. Nueva Street and another on a monument outside the north end of the courthouse.

The Nueva Street plaque at South Main Avenue was erected in 1956 and marks the site of the Vance House, where Robert E. Lee often stayed from 1853 to 1860 before the Civil War. It was constructed by the Jefferson Davis Highway Committee of the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The marker denoting the Vance House sits outside the former Federal Reserve Bank building now owned by the county. In the 1890s, the location is believed to have been the site of the federal courthouse, where a historic ruling was made in 1897.

In place of the Vance House marker, the county plans to develop a new historical marker about the house and Vance, to be donated by Vance’s descendants.

The county also plans to install a new state-authorized marker telling the obscure story of the court case brought by Ricardo Rodriguez, born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in 1857. The ruling in 1897 said Rodriguez met U.S. residency and character requirements.

The Rodriguez marker, approved by the Texas Historical Commission, says “the political and social consequences of the ruling were significant. It established the right of Mexican immigrants to attain citizenship if requirements other than ethnicity were met and affirmed that immigrants could not be denied naturalization due to lack of education.”

The second controversial marker ordered removed is part of an American Legion monument that has faced Main Plaza since 1936. It denotes San Antonio as part of the defunct Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway and is dedicated to Confederate soldiers and the Daughters of the Confederacy. The tribute has two small plaques — one with a Confederate flag image.

In its place, the county plans to install a plaque detailing Bexar County’s nine governments over the past three centuries. The plaque has been in storage during the courthouse restoration.

In other action Tuesday, commissioners authorized staff to negotiate a tax abatement pact with Alamo Manhattan River Walk LLC for a $39.6 million, 191-unit apartment development a 111 W. Jones St., near the San Antonio Museum of Art. A 10-year, 50-percent abatement will be considered.

jgonzalez@express-news.net

Twitter: @johnwgonzalez