But amid all the hoopla, one question has dogged the project for years: whether it fairly and accurately portrays the role that slavery played in the Texas War of Independence against Mexico.
To many in the state, the Alamo is a sacred site where brave revolutionaries were massacred by Mexican troops in 1836. For generations, the battle has served as a symbol of Texas pride, and some officials say the Alamo should continue to be remembered that way.
If the new museum places too much emphasis on slavery or other unsavory aspects of Texas history, it could alienate visitors to what is one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions, said Jerry E. Patterson, a Republican who served as Texas Land Commissioner from 2003 to 2015. “If we make it a museum about all the bad stuff and everything, no one is going to go,” he said.
But some historians argue that the story of the Alamo is more complicated than the legend portrayed in the movie, and that it’s time to recognize that the existence of slavery, banned in most of Mexico, influenced many of the people who fought for independence. To understand the state’s current racial inequality, they say, it’s important to show the whole history.
“Slavery may not have been the catalyst for the Revolution, but it was a fundamental tension that could not be reconciled.” “It’s a very sad story,” said Chris Tomlinson, co-author of “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth.”
The fighting over the Alamo comes as America’s racial history, from slavery to Reconstruction, has become a topic of fierce political battle in Texas and across the nation. In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed a bill restricting public school teachers from discussing race and racism in American society. 1619 Project As a national debate began about the legacy of slavery and its role in the nation’s founding, Texas lawmakers 1836 ProjectNamed after the anniversary of the historic Battle of the Alamo, the event aims to “promote patriotic education and increase awareness of Texas values.”
The job of Alamo TrustThe nonprofit overseeing the renovation project and its museum planning committee plan to find out the truth, said Kate Rogers, the group’s executive director.
“We are in a time of intense historical debate in our country and this is a historic site, so some clashes are to be expected,” Rogers said.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham (R) ran in 2023 promising to fight what she calls left-wing attempts to rewrite the state’s history and protect the Alamo’s image as “the temple of Texas freedom.” In his endorsement of Buckingham, former President Donald Trump said she was running “to defend the great heritage of Texas, including the defense of the Alamo, which, like all our great institutions, is under siege.”
One of Buckingham’s first acts after taking office was to ask the state Legislature for nearly $400 million to renovate the Alamo, which was then in decline. Most visited destinations Supporters of the project say the park, in a state that attracts about 2 million visitors a year, hasn’t been updated in decades and is in need of major renovations.
“In the past, a visit to the Alamo lasted only a few minutes on average,” Buckingham said in a statement. “We strive to ensure that a visit to the Alamo is commensurate with the importance of the events that took place there.”
Last year, lawmakers approved $400 million to restore the site, which was founded in 1724 by Spanish missionaries to convert local Native Americans to Christianity, and build a new visitor center and museum, all of which is scheduled to be completed in 2027.
But despite the plan’s bipartisan support, it has repeatedly become embroiled in culture wars over the state’s history.
The plan nearly fell through when the Alamo Trust approved a proposal to relocate the Alamo Veterans Memorial, a 60-foot-tall monument honoring those who fought in the famous battle.
During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the memorial bears the words,White supremacy” and the F.B.I.Extremist militiasTo protect the monument, a “” was set up.
Trust and City Leaders Finally, we agreed Do not move it.
There was also a fight over the Woolworth Building, one of three buildings the Trust purchased to house the new museum. Some of San Antonio’s black residents organized to preserve the building, which was a key site of the city’s lunch counter integration during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. To end the fight, the Alamo Trust agreed to add a civil rights exhibit to the museum.
The latest dispute is over plans to erect a statue of a man named Joe.
Most aspects of Joe’s story are uncontroversial. He was an enslaved black man who was at the Alamo with Texas Revolutionary commander William B. Travis during the famous battle in 1836. As one of the few survivors, Joe has gone down in history as a key witness to the battle. In telling his story, he repeatedly noted that he was armed during the battle. According to some historical records.
The Alamo Museum Planning Committee, overseen by the Alamo Trust, was divided over whether Joe’s statue should depict an enslaved man holding a musket.
Some members of the Black Committee argued that showing Joe armed would give the false impression that he and other enslaved blacks were fighting for freedom for Texas independence and their continued bondage.
“If his contribution to this fight is telling stories, then let’s tell them,” said Deborah Omowale Jarmon, one of about 30 members of the planning committee.
“But the next thing we know, Joe had a gun and they were saying he was a defender of the Alamo,” said Jarmon, who runs the San Antonio African American Community Archives & Museum. “It’s delusional to think that enslaved people were intentionally fighting for Texas independence.”
But other commissioners argued that including the musket was an important part of staying true to the historical record. Joe himself had told others he was armed, but his motives for carrying a weapon were unclear, said Patterson, the former land commissioner.
“In Joe’s own words, he had a musket with him during the battle,” said Patterson, who also serves on the museum planning committee. “The question is, what was it for? Was it for self-preservation or was he fighting for the Texas Revolution? We’ll never know the answer to that, but it’s a great question.”
The committee’s meetings are closed to the public and the trust requires members to sign non-disclosure agreements. News of the fight over Joe’s statue only became public when Jarmon wrote to the committee. san antonio express news She said she was “serving in protest” of the committee’s original vote to depict Joe as armed.
Non-disclosure agreements are common in museum projects and their purpose is not to limit transparency but to give members a space to speak freely, said Rogers, the foundation’s executive director.
The planning commission recently reached a compromise: The bronze statue, based on a local college student, will depict an enslaved man not as an armed man, but as a survivor and witness to the battle.
The compromise would honor Joe while maintaining historical accuracy, Rogers said.
The trust and the commission are walking a political tightrope. San Antonio and surrounding Bexar County are a blue dot in a sea of red in Texas. About 60 percent of the county’s residents are Latino, 30 percent are white and 7 percent are black. Census DataPresident Biden won. About 20 points difference In 2020.
Most of the project’s $550 million budget will come from millions approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has called for the new museum to focus on famous battles.
The city of San Antonio and other Democratic-controlled municipalities are providing about $60 million for the project and have said the new museum should explore topics such as the area’s Native American history and the role of slavery in sparking the Texas Revolution.
“Alamo officials have told me they want to address controversial issues, but I don’t think they have the freedom to do so,” said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert (D). “Just as we fight for our hearts and souls for America, we fight for our hearts and souls for Texas, and the Alamo is at the center of that.”
Patterson acknowledges that Texas has long believed in romanticizing its history. As a child, he said, his view of the Alamo and Texas independence was influenced by movies such as Disney’s “Davy Crockett” and the 1960 film “The Alamo,” starring John Wayne.
“At the end of the day, for nearly 100 years, the state of Texas has been teaching, believing and upholding a narrative of history that is not entirely true to the facts and does not include all the parties that should be included,” he said.
But some people are trying to force an overcorrection, Patterson said.
“The undercurrent here is not about the Alamo, it’s about people who believe the Texas rebellion of 1836 was about slavery, which is frankly wrong,” he said.
Patterson said Texans who fought for independence didn’t think slavery was at risk, noting that other Mexican states that didn’t have slavery were also rebelling. He noted that the Texas Declaration of Independence didn’t mention slavery among its grievances.
But Patterson said the Texas Constitution, which was written around the same time, “protected slavery as much as possible.”
But not all historians agree. Tomlinson, co-author of “Forget the Alamo,” said slavery was under frequent attack at the time and was an important issue for those fighting for Texas independence.
As plans for renovations and a new museum continue, there’s still a long fight ahead to ensure slavery is incorporated into the Alamo’s history, planning commission members and local officials said.
“A genie has come out of the lamp. If we put this story out there, people will know that there was actually another version,” said Mario Marcel Salas, a retired political science professor and author of “The Alamo: The Cradle of Lies, Slavery and White Supremacy.”
“Eventually, although it may not happen in my lifetime, San Antonio will be ready to let go of the mythology of the Alamo,” said Salas, a San Antonio native.
