Yet another statue has been removed from the Dallas, this time from Love Airport.
The Texas Ranger statue that has stood since 1963 has been removed over concerns of the history of “police brutality and racism by the Rangers during their history,” the Dallas Morning News reported.
Book Influences Removal
A former Dallas Morning News reporter is at the center of this controversy.
Doug J. Swanson, who is now a writing teacher at the University of Pittsburgh, is about to release a new book on the history of the Texas Rangers.
The book, Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers is due out on June 9 and its content has Dallas City officials sitting on pins and needles right now.
After reading excerpts from the book, officials decided to make a preemptive move and have the Texas Rangers statue removed from the airport.
Captain Jay Banks was used as the inspiration for the statue and his history with the Texas Rangers is why there is so much fuss about the statue at Love Field.
When Banks was in service to the Rangers, he became the face of then-Governor Allan Shivers (who, by the way, was a Democrat) order “to block integration of a high school in Mansfield and a community college in Texarkana in 1957.”
Swanson stated, “Banks became sort of the face for that, 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.”
Even so, Swanson says he is not about erasing history.
He 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.”
This is yet another statue that is on an ever-growing list of historical monuments being removed from the city of Dallas.
Right or wrong, this is not going to sit well with a lot of people as this country seems to be going in the direction of hiding from history rather than, as Swanson stated, “explaining” it.
Source: Dallas Morning News
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