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Just One Riot: Episodes of Texas Rangers in the 20th Century

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

Information for this thread is thanks in large part to Just One Riot: Episodes of Texas Rangers in the Twentieth Century by Ben Proctor /8 www.amazon.com/Just-One-Rio...

Just One Riot: Episodes of Texas Rangers in the 20th Century [Procter, Ben] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Just One Riot: Episodes of Texas Rangers in the 20th Century

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Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

The Klan reassembled in Waco on October 10, 1921 with the rumored intention of killing Burton, but he performed his duties as usual and appeared conspicuously in public without harm. /7

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

With the mob continuing to threaten to break into the drugstore to hang the sheriff and his deputy, Burton decided to not wait for the ambulance and to drive Buchanan the 30 miles back to Waco himself. /6

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

Upon entering the drugstore, multiple other victims of gunshot and stab wounds were discovered, and it was clear the Klan rally had been meant as an event of violence and chaos rather than a demonstration. /5

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

Burton then shot Buchanan’s would-be killer, and began firing into the Klansmen who had begun shouting “Get a rope! Get a rope! Let’s hang ‘em!” Burton and Buchanan then escaped to shelter inside a Lorena drugstore. /4

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

The Klan incited violence, and in the chaos, Sherriff Buchanan was shot. He proceeded to use his switchblade in self-defense, wounding multiple attackers, one of whom was later identified as a Waco policeman. /3

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

While Burton and Buchanan were not opposed to the Klan’s announced march, they stated they were there to prevent violence, which they were unable to do. /2

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 7d

#OTD in 1921, future Texas Ranger Red Burton, a sheriff’s deputy at the time, and Waco sheriff Bob Buchanan had a run-in with the Lorena Ku Klux Klan in Lorena, Texas. /1

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Refusing to Forget members are @ccarmona.bsky.social, Juan Carmona, John Morán González, Sonia Hernández, @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social, @leahlao.bsky.social, Monica Muñoz Martínez and @alacranita.bsky.social, another co-founder is @gonzalest956.bsky.social. /14

Refusing to Forget (@refusing2forget.bsky.social)

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

This thread is a part of the #OTD in Ranger history campaign that refusing2forget.bsky.social is running this year. Follow this handle or refusingtoforget.org/ranger-bicentennial-project/ and visit our website refusingtoforget.org to learn more. /13

An award-winning public history project committed to sharing the history of state-sanctioned violence against Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Texas.

refusing2forget.bsky.social

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Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Key sources for this post are Thurgood Marshall’s FBI file -- vault.fbi.gov/Thurgood%20M... -- and Doug Swanson’s “Cult of Glory,” especially page 332. /12

Thurgood Marshall Part 01

vault.fbi.gov

Summary of service for this honored Texas Ranger

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Indeed, in June 2023 the Museum inducted Homer Garrison, head of TX DPS in 1956, into its Hall of Fame, with no mention of this or similar incidents. /11 www.texasranger.org/Hall-of-Fame...

Homer Garrison, Jr.

www.texasranger.org

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

The TX Ranger Museum, supported by city of Waco, ignores most of these events, presumably because they are at odds with the goal of celebrating the Rangers. /10 @wacotrib.bsky.social

Ranger Allee in Crystal City - Refusing to Forget

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

In the following years, the Rangers were important shock troops against Black and Mexican-American civil rights efforts, allowing white mobs to threaten Black children attempting to enroll in school, and beating activists. /9 refusingtoforget.org/ranger-allee...

#OTD in 1963, Texas Gov. John Connally dispatched Ranger Captain Alfred Young "A. Y." Allee to Crystal City. Connally did so to "keep the peace" during the

refusingtoforget.org

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Texas’ state government then moved aggressively against the NAACP. A Ranger piloted a plan that carried an assistant attorney general to 8 cities in 3 days to raid NAACP offices and seize records. A state judge then issued an injunction against the org. /8

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Given Hoover’s notorious opposition to civil rights, unsurprisingly the FBI concluded that no civil rights violations had taken place. /7 kinginstitute.stanford.edu/federal-bure...

kinginstitute.stanford.edu

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Rangers and other state agents took most of the plaintiffs in the NAACP school desegregation case to a Justice of the Peace in Dallas where they were interrogated about their roles in the suit./6

October 1, 1956 FBI memo, https://vault.fbi.gov/Thurgood%20Marshall/Thurgood%20Marshall%20Part%201%20of%2011/view, page 80

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

FBI agents interviewed at least some of the NAACP’s clients. One said a Ranger implied that this individual’s asserting of their constitutional rights could lead to him being fired from his job. That was an effort to stop the desegregation lawsuit. /5

Bob White - Refusing to Forget

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Black Texans had reason to fear Rangers. Their torture of Bob White had led a Texas court, and then the U.S. Supreme Court, to throw out a conviction, before he was murdered in court. Rangers had participated in numerous lynchings and murders as well.. /4 refusingtoforget.org/bob-white/

#OTD in 1937, Bob White, a Black farmworker, was found guilty of rape and sentenced to death based on a forced confession extracted with the help of Texas

refusingtoforget.org

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Marshall complained that Rangers and other state agents interviewed Black parents and threatened them with imprisonment and “economic pressure” while NAACP attorneys were out of town. /3

FBI memo, September 30, 1956. https://vault.fbi.gov/Thurgood%20Marshall/Thurgood%20Marshall%20Part%201%20of%2011/view, page 76

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 8d

Marshall, Chief Counsel of the NAACP, was advising Dallas families in an effort to desegregate the city’s schools, pursuant to the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education two years before. /2 www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm

The path to equality has been anything but smooth. It's taken courage and dedication by everyday people coming together for a common goal to carry the country toward true equality. Parents, teachers, ...

www.nps.gov