Updated on Jan. 2, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. with confirmation the board will discuss the plaque's removal and on Dec. 3, 2018 at 7:35 p.m. with comment from Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton and at 9:30 p.m. with comment from Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas.

Gov. Greg Abbott has called a meeting to discuss the fate of a controversial Confederate plaque in the Texas Capitol.

Last month, Abbott said he would convene a meeting of the State Preservation Board's six governing members on Jan. 11. The board, which is responsible for the upkeep of historic sites including the Capitol and governor's mansion, will discuss the removal of the Children of the Confederacy plaque at that meeting, according to a copy of the agenda posted on Jan. 2.

A divisive marker that's angered black lawmakers for years, the plaque has elicited growing bipartisan ire since calls for its removal began to pick up steam in the last several months.

Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, applauded the move to discuss its future.

"I commend the Governor for calling this meeting to begin the process of removing the confederate plaque from the halls of the State Capitol," Bonnen, the man Republicans have backed to become the next speaker of the Texas House, told The Dallas Morning News late Monday. "It is historically inaccurate, and I stand by those who have called for its removal."

Erected in 1959 with the Legislature's blessing, the plaque features the Children of the Confederacy creed, which, until recently claimed to "teach the truths of history ... one of the most important of which is, that the war between the states was not a rebellion nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery."

That statement directly conflicts with Texas' reasons for seceding from the Union, which included "the unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery."

"The crisis upon us involves not only the right of self-government, but the maintenance of a great principle in the law of nations — the immemorial recognition of the institution of slavery," Oran M. Roberts, president of the Secession Convention of Texas, said on the first day of its meeting.

The Children of the Confederacy is an auxiliary of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a national group headquartered in Richmond, Va. A few years ago, it changed its creed to remove the claim that slavery was not an underlying cause of the Civil War.

1 / 6The Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque at the Capitol in Austin, Texas. On Dec. 3, 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott called a meeting of the State Preservation Board, which could vote to remove and relocate the plaque. (File/Austin American-Statesman) 2 / 6The Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque at the Capitol in Austin, Texas shown in August 2017. On Dec. 3, 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott called a meeting of the State Preservation Board, which could vote to remove and relocate the plaque.(Jay Janner / Austin American-Statesman) 3 / 6The Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque at the Capitol in Austin, Texas shown in August 2017. On Dec. 3, 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott called a meeting of the State Preservation Board, which could vote to remove and relocate the plaque.(Eric Gay / AP) 4 / 6The Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque at the Capitol in Austin, Texas shown in August 2017. On Dec. 3, 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott called a meeting of the State Preservation Board, which could vote to remove and relocate the plaque. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman) 5 / 6Texas State Representative Eric Johnson grew up in west Dallas and is now trying to have a plaque removed from the State Capital that says the Civil War wasn't about slavery. (Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 6 / 6Gov. Greg Abbott during a hurricane response briefing with President Donald Trump.(Andy Jacobsohn / Staff Photographer)

Several lawmakers have called for the plaque's removal over the decades.

Rep. Eric Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, picked up the mantle last year, when his Capitol office was relocated nearby. He's called the plaque's message incorrect and offensive, a sentiment echoed by other lawmakers, including the outgoing House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio and Bonnen, his presumptive successor.

Late Monday, Johnson said posterity would be the ultimate arbiter of the issue.

"At the end of the day, long after we are all dead and gone, there will be left only history to judge our actions," Johnson told The News. "I have no doubt that those, like Chairman Bonnen, who have joined me and others in calling for the removal of the 'Children of the Confederacy Creed' plaque from the Texas Capitol, will be rightly viewed by posterity as honest, intelligent, and fair-minded individuals."

Abbott, too, has supported its removal but has said he thinks lawmakers should determine its future.

Then, last week, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion that said the preservation board, the Capitol curator (who oversees the historical artifacts there) or the Texas Legislature each have the authority to remove the plaque.

Johnson immediately reiterated his request that the curator take down the plaque as soon as possible. Soon after, preservation officials confirmed they were reviewing their procedures for removing historical items from the Capitol.

Abbott has not weighed in since he said lawmakers should control what happens to the plaque. He is the one official who can call a meeting of the preservation board's governing members, who also include the House speaker, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, two lawmakers and a member of the public.