A Republican Texas state lawmaker is seeking to rename prisons in the state that have been named for slave owners or people connected to convict leasing, which was a system in which Black prisoners were required to perform unpaid labor for private industries, according to The Texas Tribune.

State Rep. James White (R) announced Friday that he will make a request to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice to rename several prisons within the state.

"We've got correctional officers who have lost their lives, we've got crime victims that have contributed immensely to good victim's rights advocacy, board members that have served and promoted good policies," White said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. "I just think there are other Texans that we can probably associate a name with a unit."

Three prisons, in particular, Darrington, Goree and Eastham prisons, are named for slave owners and those involved in convict leasing. 

John Darrington owned a plantation that he later sold to the state of Texas after slavery was abolished. The inmates who are serving time at The Darrington Unit, which was named for Darrington, are still required to harvest cotton without pay. Thomas Goree, a former slave owner and Confederate captain, became one of the first superintendents of a Texas prison, according to the Marshall Project.

The Eastham Unit, located in Houston County, Texas, was named for landowners who bought Goree's family plantation and used it for convict leasing, according to the Project.

White told the news outlet that he started to research the names of the prisons last year and later contacted the prison system about it, stating "words matter." 

Several public schools across the country have also had discussions on renaming following the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed over the summer as a white police officer knelt on his neck, and the protests that followed.