Texas Rep. Eric Johnson, whose district includes parts of West Dallas and Oak Cliff, is moving up in the ranks in the Texas House of Representatives.
Johnson is now 38th in seniority, and he moved to a coveted corner office on the ground floor of the state Capitol, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
For years, Johnson has taken the lead in an effort remove an inaccurate plaque inside the Capitol commemorating the U.S. Civil War. It states, in part, “the war between the states was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery.” The plaque was right outside the door of his previous office.
His new office is the site of the only murder inside the Capitol as well as the only assassination of a sitting state officeholder in Texas, the same event. A former employee of Texas State Comptroller Robert M. Love shot and killed him in his office on June 30, 1903. Love had served as a soldier for the Confederacy.
The Statesman reports that the office is sometimes described as “haunted” during public tours, but Johnson says that doesn’t bother him.
“I love my new office,” he told the newspaper. “And I think it is somewhat humorous that I don’t seem able to escape the Confederacy no matter where I go in the Capitol.”
