Wokeness won’t go away quietly, especially in the war against history. In April, a new Texas history organization, created in the aftermath of a critical race showdown within the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), announced it will meet for its first symposium, titled “Texas History in the 21st Century: Looking Back, Moving Forward.”
At this event, to be held at Texas Christian University, college professors can learn about “Writing Against the Master Narrative,” as well as pay tribute to former TSHA Chief Historian, Walter Buenger.
One doesn’t have to read too closely between the lines to get the impression that these historians, almost exclusively academics, apparently believe that there’s some kind of “master narrative” that needs to be challenged.
You may recall that their honoree, Buenger, has dismissed the Alamo as “insignificant,” while insisting that the shrine of Texas liberty has been misused to “commemorate whiteness.”
Is that the “master narrative?”
From commentary in the media, it is clear that this new group believes they are up against the Texas Legislature, which rightly banned the teaching of the 1619 Project—after it had been debunked by seemingly every reputable historian in the country.
Perhaps they also believe it is important to put the book “Forget the Alamo”—written by two partisan reporters and a political consultant, which was also debunked by any historian that matters—in Texas classrooms?
Because they are professors, they may also be fighting against the Texas Legislature’s passage of a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs in Texas public colleges and universities. The Texas DEI bill has nothing to do with teaching history, but it does prohibit classifying every student by the color of their skin, ethnicity, or gender.
DEI ideology on campus permeates every aspect of campus life, especially the teaching of history. It is built on a flawed and racially divisive view of history that allows for only one lens—race and oppression. It’s a worldview that encourages people to make ridiculous statements, such as claiming the story of the Alamo “commemorates whiteness.”
DEI is a simplistic attempt to reduce Texas history, American history—the history of all Western civilization—into a war between villains and heroes. Using their analysis, every hero (in the so-called “master narrative”) is a villain and consequently, every villain must be made into a hero.
(To see how this works in contemporary times, just look at how campuses—students and faculty alike—made heroes out of the terrorists who attacked Israel.)
Real historians cannot be driven by a political ideology. They know that no figure from the past, not one as saintly as Francis of Assisi nor one as despicable as Benedict Arnold, can be portrayed as either fully hero or villain. Human beings are complicated, and so must their historical reckoning be. The shameful institution of slavery did exist in Texas, and no teacher of history can shy away from that. That’s why Texas teachers are required to teach about slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era.
Texans, like all Americans, have not always lived up to the ideals established at Washington on the Brazos. But we have never lost sight of them either.
Here at TPPF, our award-winning “Forging Texas” film series tells the story of the Texas Revolution—but it also tells the story of the first woman to lead a cattle drive across the Chisolm Trail, the Vietnamese migration to Texas in the 1970s and, most recently, investigates the birth of the African American film industry in Texas with our film, “The Making of a Classic.”
The 1836 Advisory Project was established by the Texas Legislature in 2021 and has produced a Texas history summary that is available to everyone at State DMV offices. It covers all of Texas history—the good, the bad and the ugly. Even one of the authors of “Forget the Alamo,” called it “surprisingly accurate.”
Focus groups conducted by TPPF found that most residents of the Lone Star State, whether native-born or recently arrived, African American or Hispanic, are proud to call themselves Texans. They consider the Texas story to be their own story—a story of courage and struggle, striving and success. They certainly do not view it as a white-washed “master narrative.”
We can hope that the Texas Alliance for History doesn’t become just another group of grumbling, left-leaning professors trying to convince Texans that their great state that grew out of nothing to become the seventh largest economy in the world and the job creator for the nation is somehow an evil place.
Over a million people visit the Alamo every year, a site where 200 men courageously fought to the death to ensure that Texas would be independent and free. Some African Americans and abolitionists fought beside Travis and Crockett. Everyone who was there during the siege has a story, and true historians want to learn about all of them. No one who knows the story would describe the sacrifice at the Alamo as “insignificant.”