🚨 NEW BOOK ALERT 🚨 In 1919, José Tomás Canales filed legislation to reform the Texas Rangers, sparking two weeks of historic hearings at the state capitol 🏛️ An unprecedented exposure of state-sanctioned violence & its aftermath. 👉 tinyurl.com/55jf89hs

This history shaped the world we live in. Many Americans have never heard of it. Meet Benjamin Johnson, co-founder of Refusing to Forget. 🔗 youtu.be/k6ITAhvCdpQ Support our 2026 campaign: refusingtoforget.org/donate/ #PublicHistory #TexasHistory

See you tomorrow, RGV! Join the discussion with RTF co-founder, @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social and learn why “Texas Is Bigger Than You Think It Is,” as well as a roundtable discussion on Trouble in the Borderlands. All community members are welcome.

New Blog Post ➡️ refusingtoforget.org/terror-is-th... Refusing to Forget member @leahlao.bsky.social demonstrates how the violence that the world is witnessing in Minneapolis and the murders that have occured in other cities since Trump resumed office, is horrific....but it is not new.

New Blog Post ➡️ refusingtoforget.org/the-canales-... On January 30, 1919, began an unprecedented exposure of state-sanctioned violence by the Texas Rangers & accomplices. Witnesses testified about murder, torture, displacement, and other efforts of intimidation of Border Mexicans by the Rangers.

On January 30, 1919, began an unprecedented exposure of state-sanctioned violence by the Texas Rangers & accomplices. Witnesses testified about murder, torture, displacement, and intimidation of Border Mexicans by the Rangers. Learn more in today's blog post: refusingtoforget.org/the-canales-...

Today we remember the Porvenir massacre and the lives that were lost. Read more here: refusingtoforget.org/porvenir-mas...

Today we remember the Porvenir massacre and the lives that were lost. Read more here: refusingtoforget.org/porvenir-mas...

Refusing to Forget mourns the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. refusingtoforget.org/we-refuse-to...

New on the blog: A guest post marking 115 years since the Rocksprings lynching of Antonio Rodríguez. Contributor Ignacio Minjarez examines the 1910 lynching & invites readers to consider how the stories told after the violence helped define who Rodríguez was. refusingtoforget.org/115-years-si...

As 2025 comes to a close, this work cannot pause. From reaching 21,000+ people to helping secure long-delayed death certificates for Jesús Bazán and Antonio Longoria, collective memory has made real change possible. With honest history under increasing threat, the need is urgent.

21,000+ people used our resources this year—teachers, students, journalists, families. Help us keep this history accessible. Support Refusing to Forget this #GivingTuesday. 👉 Donate on Mighty Cause: www.mightycause.com/donate/Refus... 👉 Join Patreon: www.patreon.com/RefusingtoFo...

Starting in 1 hour! Join us on Patreon to join the conversation! www.patreon.com/RefusingtoFo... The forced resignation of Kate Rogers of the Alamo Trust, the firing of Tom Alter from TX State, & lawsuits against historians & journalists are all aimed at suppressing certain historical truths.

Virtual Talk Tonight! Join us as we bring together these powerful voices to reflect on this urgent moment & the ongoing struggle to protect truthful history. @stevanzetti.bsky.social @drmphillipsut.bsky.social Access this event on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/RefusingtoFo...

Our virtual event is just one week away! Join us as we bring together these powerful voices to reflect on this urgent moment & the ongoing struggle to protect truthful history. @stevanzetti.bsky.social @drmphillipsut.bsky.social Access this event on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/RefusingtoFo...

On Sunday, local community members made the yearly walk to the Matanza of 1915 historical marker. RTF cofounder @gonzalest956.bsky.social, said the murders happened "in response to the last colonial rebellion by ethnic Mexicans against U.S. sovereignty." www.acrosstheamericas.com/la-caminata-...

🕯Día de los Muertos is upon us.🕯 Join us in remembering the stories and honoring the lives of those who have been victims of racial violence in Texas and those who have fought against these cultures of violence. View our virtual ofrendas on our website. refusingtoforget.org/dia-de-los-m...

On an unknown date in October 1962, Homer Garrison, Director of Texas DPS and Chief of the Texas Rangers, dressed in blackface for a work picnic and lampooned the NAACP. A thread on Garrison and racism in the modern Rangers./1 CW: racist language and depictions texasarchive.org/2009_00902

#OTD sometime in October of 1921 Texas Ranger Frank Hamer killed Mexican revolutionary and outlaw Rafael "Red" Lopez. His death marked the end of a years long tale that law enforcement would only fully come to understand in the early 2000s. /1

The annual Crystal City Pilgrimage honors the memory of the men, women, & children imprisoned in the WWII DOJ Crystal City Family Internment Camp. "The pilgrimage is an invitation to step into the past... To feel rage and grief but also love & community & solidarity." www.crystalcitypilgrimage.org

#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

#OTD in 1956, legendary civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall wrote to J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, complaining of Ranger intimidation of Black citizens who had sued Dallas over school segregation. /1

#OTD in 1915, Texas Rangers murdered Jesús Bazan and his son-in-law, Antonio Longoria, in cold blood. /1

Did you know Reverberations of Racial Violence (2021) is available in Spanish and FREE to download? ¿Sabías que Rebrotes de Violencia Racial está disponible en español y se puede descargar gratis? ➡️Download: libros.uanl.mx/index.php/u/... ➡️Learn more: refusingtoforget.org/1919-canales...

🚨Join us in supporting higher education and democracy. Take action using the links below:

#OTD in 1949, the first episode of The Lone Ranger premiered, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. /1

#OTD in 1988, Lee Roy Young became the first African American man to be allowed to join the Texas Rangers. /1

#OTD in 1918, Texas Rangers illegally held and tortured Jesus Villareal of Copita, TX on his way to his niece’s wedding near Roma. /1

Want to be featured on our blog? Refusing to Forget publishes blog posts in response to anniversaries & developments in historical knowledge & the way we commemorate the past. Past blog entries can be found at refusingtoforget.org/blog-2/. For more information email [email protected].

#OTD in 1915, Mexican Revolutionary officer Pascual Orozco and four companions were chased by a posse of Texas Rangers, troops of the Thirteenth Cavalry, and local police after they were falsely accused of assaulting workers at a west Texas ranch. /1

#OTD in 1955, Tales of the Texas Rangers originally aired on the CBS network and continued for three seasons. /1

📻Tune in to Fronteras on Texas Public radio today! Refusing to Forget co-founder @gonzalest956.bsky.social discusses his work on the 'A Matter of Justice' Report, written in an effort pursue justice for the victims of La Matanza. www.tpr.org/podcast/fron...

📻Tune in!! This Friday RTF co-founder @gonzalest956.bsky.social discusses the 'A Matter of Justice' Report on Fronteras, ‪‪Texas Public Radio. The conversation will also be available Friday on the TPR website: www.tpr.org/podcast/fron... Read the report here: refusingtoforget.org/a-matter-of-...

#OTD in 1915, Tomas Aguilar was executed by Rangers after an alleged escape attempt. Ranger Captain James Monroe Fox oversaw the troop that murdered him. /1

🔎 New website feature! You can now search across our blogs, OTD calendar, resources and more. 🔎 Give it a try and let us know what you search for! refusingtoforget.org

#OTD in 1915, three supposed participants in the “Plan de San Diego” uprising were killed by law enforcement. It is not known whether soldiers, law enforcement, or Texas Rangers were the ones to pull the trigger. /1

#OTD in 1915, Adolfo Muñoz was tortured, riddled with bullets, and hung from a mesquite tree two miles south of San Benito after mysteriously disappearing from the custody of deputy sheriff Frank Carr and former and future Ranger Daniel Hinojosa. /1 www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ent...

In the summer of 1888, Texas Rangers Ira Aten and Jim King went undercover to try to identify and arrest so-called “fence cutters.” They were unsuccessful. In frustration, Aten developed a plan to hide mines in the fences, blowing them up when cutters approach. /1

On July 23 or 24, 1915, the brothers Lorenzo and Gorgonio Manríquez were killed near Mercedes, Texas, by deputy sheriffs, in a chain of events that unleashed violence across south Texas in late summer and fall of 1915. /1

🗓Event in 2 Days! Virtual Author Talk with Dr. Trinidad Gonzales. “A Matter of Justice: The Uninvestigated Homicides of La Matanza” is part of an ongoing effort to confront Texas’s past and seek dignity for its victims. Join us. www.facebook.com/share/p/14L3... refusingtoforget.org/a-matter-of-...

@refusing2forget.bsky.social co-founder @gonzalest956.bsky.social has painstakingly recreated the location of Texas Rangers in the mass-murder spree of 1915-6. He will be asking local DA to issue death certificates. Read his amazing report here. /1 refusingtoforget.org/a-matter-of-...

#OTD on July 8, 1945, Bee County Sheriff Vail Ennis, with Texas Ranger Frank Probst and another deputized man, shot and killed brothers Felix, Domingo, and Antonio Rodriguez. Ennis mowed them down with a Thompson submachine gun. A fourth brother, Geronimo, was injured. /1

📢 @datarescueproject.org is calling on us to help #SaveOurSigns! Interpretive signs in national parks may be removed by Sept. under new federal rules. You can help preserve history by photographing & uploading park signs. This summer, let’s #SaveOurSigns. www.datarescueproject.org/save-our-sig...

#OTD in 1923, the Ku Klux Klan attempted to kidnap farmer and rail worker Otto Lange from his front porch in Burleson County. The resulting case shows the complicated relationship between Rangers and the Klan. /1

#OTD in 1979, the University of Notre Dame Press published “Gunpowder Justice: A Reassessment of the Texas Rangers,” by Julian Samora, Joe Bernal, and Albert Peña. /1

In late June 1914 #TexasRangers Ira Cline and H.L. Roberson killed Carlos Morales Wood, editor of the Spanish language newspaper La Patria Mexicana published in Valentine, TX, while he supposedly resisted arrest. /1

Rangers Captain Sam McMurry, from Company B, was sent to Thumber, Texas in the Spring of 1889 to take stock of an ongoing conflict between T&PCC management and its miners. /1

Happy Juneteenth! Today we remember, celebrate, and recommit to justice.

#OTD June 16, 1901, a large posse in search of Gregorio Cortez lynched an unnamed Mexican man near Belmont for suspicion of harboring Cortez, in an act of violence that shows the connections between mob violence and law enforcement. /1

On June 12, 1901 Gregorio Cortéz killed 2 Texas law officers in self-defense and led Texas Rangers on a nearly 10 day chase through south central Texas. Cortez was regarded as a "bandit” by the law but became a hero to many Mexican Americans. /1