EP. 94: The Texas Rangers–East Texas Troubles

Wise About Texas

Ken Wise

Texan, Places & Travel, Education, Texas, Cowboy, History, Society & Culture, Culture, Jacinto, Texans, San

5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

San Augustine had a crime problem in the 1930’s. A semi-organized gang was preying on the black community and something had to be done. The problem was compounded by a corrupt governor who had all but destroyed the Rangers. But new Governor James V Allred cleaned up the Texas Ranger force and restored it to its rightful place as one of the nation’s premier law enforcement organizations. Then he sent them to San Augustine. The Rangers cleaned up the town and broke down some Jim Crow barriers. Hear the story of how the Allred rangers cleaned up San Augustine in this interview with one of the premier Texas Ranger scholars in Texas, Dr. Jody Edward Ginn.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Howdy and welcome to Wise about Texas, the award winning Texas History Podcast. My name is Ken Wise. I'm your host today and I am very grateful that you tuned into this podcast to hear a little bit about Texas History.
0:20.0	We've got a special episode for you today about a time in the early 20th century
0:25.6	where the Texas Rangers were sent into East Texas town that was being
0:30.0	terrorized by a gang. It really is the stuff of a classic Western movie, but it's
0:36.7	got a little twist. This particular operation broke the barriers of strict racial segregation of the Jim Crow era and it
0:46.2	resulted in some groundbreaking legal process. For this episode I'm
0:51.9	interviewing a repeat guest here on Wies about Texas Dr.
0:55.2	Jody Edward Ginn. Dr. Ginn is one of the preeminent Texas Ranger Scholars and
1:00.1	since his last appearance on this podcast has accepted the position of
1:04.1	executive director of the Texas Ranger Heritage Center in Fredericksburg Texas
1:08.9	which is part of the former Texas Ranger Foundation and Association. The Association
1:15.1	was founded in 1800s by some former Rangers. Dr. Ginn has a book out called
1:20.3	East Texas Troubles, The All Red Rangers cleanup of San
1:23.7	Augustine. Discovered and wrote about this story. It's a very interesting story.
1:28.0	Now I'll tell you it's fashionable in some circles, especially these days, to try and rewrite history and take some radical political
1:36.3	angle or argue that our history is not what it seems or whatever. Well the
1:42.0	Rangers have even been a victim of that.
1:44.0	Recently, well you can save it. This podcast is about history, it's about real history,
1:50.0	whether the facts are good or bad by our modern standards.
1:55.0	That's what we're interested in and that's what we're going to talk about today.
1:58.0	We're going to talk about a time when a community needed help,
2:01.0	when the rule of law had broken down and the Texas
	...

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