The CEO of the nonprofit that manages the Alamo resigned after a powerful Republican state official publicly criticized her, suggesting her views were inconsistent with the history of the Texas sacred site.
Kate Rogers said in a statement Friday that she had resigned the previous day after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote a letter to the Alamo Trust board recommending she either resign or be removed. Patrick criticized her for an academic paper that questioned education policies in the Republican-controlled Legislature and suggested she wanted historic sites in Texas Have a broader focus.
“Yesterday it was with mixed emotions that I resigned as president and CEO of the Alamo Trust,” Rogers said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Through recent events, it has become clear to me that it is time to move on.”
Several trust officials did not immediately respond to emails or mobile phone messages seeking comment Friday.
Patrick sent a letter to the board on Thursday Xcalled her paper “shocking.” She wrote this book in 2023 as part of her PhD in Global Education from the University of Southern California. Patrick posted part of it online.
“I believe her judgment is now seriously questioned,” Patrick wrote. “She had a completely different vision of how to tell the history of the Alamo.”
It’s the latest episode in an ongoing conflict over how America tells its history. Patrick calls on Rodgers to step down Pressure on President Donald Trump Let the Smithsonian Museum in Washington focus less on slavery and other dark parts of America’s past.
Known as the “Shrine of Texas Liberty,” the Alamo attracts more than 1.6 million visitors each year. The trust operates it under a contract with the Texas General Land Office, and the state plans a $400 million renovation with a new museum and visitor center set to open in 2027. Patrick serves as president of the Texas Senate.
In San Antonio, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, the county’s top elected executive, condemned Patrick’s “serious political interference.”
“We need to take politics out of history teaching. Period,” he said in a statement on Friday.
In an excerpt from the paper, Rogers pointed to the Texas Legislature’s “conservative agenda” for 2023, including bills to limit content about race and slavery in history courses.
“Philosophically, I do not believe it is the role of politicians to dictate what professional educators can or should teach in their classrooms,” she wrote.
Her paper also references the 2021 book “Forgetting the Alamo,” which challenges the traditional historical narrative of the 13-day siege of the Alamo in 1836 during Texas’ fight for independence from Mexico.
Rogers noted that the book argued that a central reason for the war was the decision of Anglo settlers to continue enslaving slaves after slavery was largely abolished in Mexico. Texas won the war and became an independent republic until it was annexed by the United States in 1845.
Rogers also wrote that the city advisory committee wanted to tell the site’s “full story,” including its history as a Native homeland — but state Republican leaders opposed that. She said she wants the Alamo to be “a place that brings people together instead of dividing them.”
“But,” she added, “from a political perspective, that may not be possible at the moment.”
The traditional narrative obscures the role slavery may have played in the Texas independence movement and portrays the Alamo’s defenders as freedom fighters. In his letter, Patrick called the siege “thirteen glorious days.”
Mexican troops attacked and captured Texas fortifications. But “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry for Texas troops.
“We must ensure that future generations never forget the sacrifices made for freedom,” Patrick wrote in a letter to the trust’s board. “Today I will continue to defend the Alamo and prevent history from being rewritten.”