As a statue falls, Texas Rangers are cast as heroes and villains

As the United States wrestles with racial injustice and policing, a broader conversation has emerged over historic and present-day injustices faced by ethnic minorities. In Texas, that conversation has turned to the violent history of the Texas Rangers. 

Created in 1823 to fight Native Americans and secure the frontier for settlers, the Texas Rangers redeployed to the borderlands in the early 1900s, resulting in widespread racial brutality on which recent historical research has shined a harsh light.

Today the reality of the Texas Rangers is in sharp focus. 

A statue of a Ranger at the Dallas Love Field airport – modeled on a Ranger who stood by as white mobs physically blocked the integration of public schools in the 1950s – was taken down last month. Other statues, monuments, and mascots honoring the

Rapid change, racial tensionsDepicted as heroesA bicentennial beckons