If you grew up in Texas, it’s likely that you were treated to tales of the noble and daring fighting force known as the Texas Rangers. The myth of the Rangers as heroes has carried down through the 20th Century, from the 1950s Lone Ranger TV series to the exploits of Walker, Texas Ranger. But now, a new book seeks to paint the Rangers in a new light.
As The Texas Observer reports, Monica Muñoz Martinez’s The Injustice Never Leaves You depicts the Rangers as a “state-sponsored terror squad,” tasked with protecting the rights of whites along the Texas-Mexico border.
Martinez’s book highlights a number of extrajudicial murders, culminating in the period from 1915 to 1919, when, with official state consent, the Rangers killed some 300 ethnic Mexicans.
Martinez received her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale, and she is now a professor at Brown University.