Texas Rangers

Prof. Trinidad Gonzalez Seeks Truth and Reconciliation from Texas Rangers

The historian at South Texas College is seeking acknowledgment by the state legislature and elected officials representing the Rio Grande Valley of the atrocities committed under the color of law by the Texas Rangers after Texas independence. 

Texas Prof Wins John Lewis Award for Work Recovering History of Anti-Mexican Border Violence

Trinidad Gonzalez of South Texas College discovered his own family's connection to "la Matanza," the killing of several hundred ethnic Mexicans in the Rio Grande Valley in 1915, while researching the broader history of racist violence along the Texas-Mexico border. 

New Evidence about Texas's Porvenir Massacre

Texas Rangers orchestrated the killing of 15 unarmed Mexican men and boys in a Texas border town in 1918. Monica Muñoz Martinez describes this as part of a pattern of state-sanctioned racist violence in the state, which her organization Refusing to Forget is working to commemorate. 

Though Often Mythologized, the Texas Rangers Have an Ugly History of Brutality

by Jonathan S. Jones

The link between racial violence and Texas law enforcement goes all the way back to the state’s original police force, the Texas Rangers.

The Texas Rangers' Lore Spurred Cultural Fawning and Sports Namesakes that have Long Masked a History of Violence and Racism

John Morán González (University of Texas) and Benjamin Johnson (Loyola University, Chicago) founded Refusing to Forget, an organization that hopes to educate people about state-sanctioned violence against Tejanos in the early 20th century, including by the Texas Rangers.

A Century Ago, One Lawmaker Went After the Most Powerful Cops in Texas. Then They Went After Him.

by Tim Murphy

The Texas Rangers were vicious enforcers of white power. J.T. Canales was the only Mexican American in the legislature. He lost the fight, but the reckoning he sought is finally underway. Historians Monica Muñoz Martinez and Doug Swanson explain.

'Cult Of Glory' Reveals The Dark History Of The Texas Rangers

Author Doug Swanson chronicles centuries of abuse within the famed Texas law enforcement agency, including burning villages, hunting runaway slaves and murdering Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

Who Writes History?

The Fight to Commemorate a Massacre by the Texas Rangers