The executive director of the nonprofit that manages the Alamo resigned after an influential Republican state official publicly criticized her, suggesting her views were inconsistent with the history of the Texas sanctuary.
Kate Rogers said in a statement Friday that she resigned the day before after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wrote a letter to the Alamo Trust board suggesting she either resign or be removed. Patrick criticized her over an academic paper in which she questioned the Republican-controlled Legislature’s education policies and suggested she wanted to bring the Texas historic site into broader focus.
“It is with mixed emotions that I resigned from my position as president and CEO of the Alamo Trust yesterday,” Rogers said in a text message statement to The Associated Press. “Recent events made it clear that it was time for me to move on.”
Several trust officials did not immediately respond to email or cell phone messages seeking comment Friday.
Patrick sent a letter to the board on Thursday on X in which he described their work as “shocking”. She wrote it in 2023 for her doctorate in global education at the University of Southern California. Patrick has put part of it online.
“I believe her judgment is now in serious question,” Patrick wrote. “She has a completely different view of how the Alamo story should be told.”
It is the latest episode in an ongoing conflict over how the United States tells its story. Patrick’s call for Rogers’ ouster follows pressure from President Donald Trump to get the Smithsonian museums in Washington to place less emphasis on slavery and other darker parts of America’s past.
Known as “the sanctuary of Texas freedom,” 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 to spend $400 million on a renovation, with a modern museum and visitor center scheduled to open in 2027. Patrick is the leader of the Texas Senate.
In San Antonio, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, the county’s elected top official, condemned Patrick’s “gross political interference.”
“We must take politics out of our history lessons. Period,” he said in a statement Friday.
In the excerpt from her essay, Rogers pointed to the Texas Legislature’s “conservative agenda” in 2023, including bills to limit what can be taught about race and slavery in history courses.
“Philosophically, I do not believe it is the role of politicians to determine what professional educators can or should teach in the classroom,” she wrote.
Her article also mentioned a 2021 book titled “Forget the Alamo,” which challenges established historical narratives surrounding the 13-day Siege of the Alamo during Texas’ fight for independence from Mexico in 1836.
Rogers noted that the book argues that a central cause of the war was Anglo settlers’ determination to keep slaves in bondage after Mexico largely abolished them. Texas won the war and was an independent republic until the United States annexed it in 1845.
Rogers also wrote that a city advisory board wanted to tell the “full story” of the site, including its history as a home to indigenous peoples — something the state’s Republican leaders oppose. She said she would love the Alamo to be “a place that brings people together, not tears them apart.”
“But,” she added, “politically, that may not be possible right now.”
Traditional narratives unknown the role that slavery may have played in the Texas quest for independence and portray the Alamo defenders as freedom fighters. Patrick’s letter referred to the siege as “13 Days of Glory.”
The Mexican army attacked and overran the Texas defenses. But “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry for the Texas armed forces.
“We must ensure that future generations never forget the sacrifice made for freedom,” Patrick wrote in his letter to the trust’s board. “I will continue to defend the Alamo today against any rewriting of history.”
