UNREAL: Monument Dedicated to Texas Rangers Removed from Dallas Airport in Aftermath of Riots
Jose Nino
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A famous statue of a Texas Ranger at Dallas Love Field was recently removed from the airport on June 4, 2020 in the aftermath of violent rioting on the Texas city’s streets.
The statue, which was set up in 1963, was removed by city of Dallas workers.
Officials claim the decision was brought about by an excerpt from a book that will soon be published detailing the law enforcement agency’s history. There is a particular emphasis on police brutality and racism in the book.
Yet, the timing in the wake of violent protests leaving people dead in the streets seems suspect.
Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers, authored by Doug J. Swanson, is set for release on June 9. Swanson spent most of his life in Texas, where he worked for The Dallas Morning News for 34 years before he became a writing professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Chris Perry, a Love Feld spokesman, said on June 3, 2020 that he and other airport officials had read a section of the book that recently appeared in D magazine.
The article concerned both city and Love Field officials due to its depictions of police brutality and racism by the Rangers throughout their history.
Swanson’s book comes during a time when protests have kicked off across the nation following the May 25 death of George Floyd, who was allegedly murdered by a police officer who placed his knee on Floyd’s neck and ended up suffocating him.
Perry said that the statue will go into storage for now. However, the city’s Office of Arts and Culture, which handles public art in Dallas, will ultimately determine the statue’s fate. Perry also revealed that the arts commission and the mayor’s office might have a say on what must be done with the statue.
Tristan Hallman, a spokesman for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, said on June 4 that “the mayor was not informed by the city manager’s office” of the decision to take down the statue and “was not aware of the controversy surrounding the statue. He believes it’s something that the City Council will probably want to weigh in on.”
Jennifer Scripps, director of the Office of Arts and Culture, recognized “that there is going to be work ahead on re-evaluating this piece” as one of the premier monuments of public art in Dallas.
Texas artist Waldine Amanda Tauch sculpted the 12-foot-tall bronze statue.
When he was contacted, Swanson stated, “I’m not for silencing or abolishing pieces of history. I am for explaining them and giving them context. In this case, this statue has a very rich and problematic backstory.”
He said it portrays Captain Jay Banks, who was “the Ranger in charge when then-Texas Gov. Allan Shivers sent the Rangers to block integration of a high school in Mansfield and a community college in Texarkana in 1957,” despite court rulings that should have barred Shivers from maintaining pro-segregation policies.
“Banks became sort of the face for that,” Swanson commented, “because there’s a famous picture of him leaning against a tree in front of Mansfield high school while a black figure hangs in effigy above the school, with Banks making no effort to take it down. And Banks sided with the mobs who were there to keep the black kids out. So, he was the face of that and of a statue that welcomes people to Dallas.”
The Left is not playing games. Their political correctness is on a whole different level and they’re ready to destroy American history.
Confederate monuments are only the beginning. Once the iconoclastic Left knocks the down “racist” confederate monuments, they’ll be going after every other American historical figure who doesn’t alive with their worldview.
Conservatives must wake up to this.
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