Refusing to Forget is pleased to announce that in 2023 we will be running an #OTD in Ranger History campaign to coincide with the Ranger Force’s claimed bicentennial. Several times a week, we will post information about Ranger actions on our website and in twitter threads. The posts will draw on scholarship on the Rangers, violence, and historical memory. An example of the genre is George Diaz’s recent RTF blog post.
These posts will show the important role of the Rangers not just in the racial violence of the 1910s (RTF’s focus) but their role over the larger course of Texas in maintaining white supremacy and crushing dissident political movements. They will also highlight the Rangers as a subject of popular cultural productions like “Walker, Texas Ranger” and as subjects of public and scholarly debate for more than a century. Here, for example, is the cover of Américo Paredes’ key 1956 book.
Why are we doing this? Anniversaries provide a chance for learning and reflection. As RTF Founder Trinidad Gonzales observes, “It is time to address Ranger history thoroughly and honestly so the many wounds done to communities across Texas can finally be addressed.” The eruption of protests, reform measures, and removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the Minneapolis police department have created a moment for the reconsideration of icons like the Rangers. Indeed, one well known monument to the Rangers came down in 2020. A knowledge of the abuses of police power in the past should be an important aspect of training and monitoring policing in the present. It is in Germany. And in Chicago, victims of police torture have insisted that the commemoration of the outrages perpetrated against them be a part of the curriculum in the city’s public schools and police academy and the memorial landscape.
Of course, racism and arbitrary violence are not the only legacy of the Rangers or other police forces. Ours is intended as a corrective history, not a complete one.
Uncritical and dangerously celebratory narratives of the Ranger past are on display at the publicly funded Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, whose displays honor murderers like J.M. Fox and Frank Hamer and which until recently celebrated slave-catching. Ranger supporters, working with the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation and and the Hall of Fame, plan their own commemoration of the force’s claimed bicentennial.
This campaign includes a mobile museum and frames the current Ranger Force as the heir of a noble tradition. Here is campaign chair Russell Molina’s description of a planned monument: “an old Ranger, his hand on the shoulder of a young DPS trooper. So that’s the old, the past to the present, pointing to the future . . . a male and a female DPS trooper with a canine along with a helicopter and plane showcasing the modern era of DPS.” Current Rangers and their backers claim the tradition of the Rangers, and still wear light colored hats and badges made out of Mexican pesos. So they should acknowledge and take responsibility for the dark side of this history as well.
How can you help? Circulate this announcement and encourage your colleagues to follow Refusing to Forget on twitter or this website. Tag a journalist while you’re at it. You can sign up for email updates at this link. We are a 501 c 3 not for profit corporation and gladly accept tax-deductible donations. We have recently hired one part-time employee but almost all of our work is done by members donating their time and expertise.
