CEO of the Alamo’s historic site has resigned after a Texas Republican criticized her
The CEO of the nonprofit organization that runs the Alamo has resigned after a powerful Republican official publicly criticized her, suggesting her views were inconsistent with the history of the Texas shrine.
Kate Rogers said in a statement Friday that she resigned the day before, after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote a letter to the Alamo Trust board suggesting she resign or be removed from office. Patrick criticized her for an academic article questioning the GOP-controlled Legislature’s education policies and suggesting she wanted the Texas historic site to have a broader scope.
“It is with mixed emotions that I resigned yesterday as president and CEO of the Alamo Trust,” Rogers said in a statement texted to The Associated Press. “Recent events have shown that it is time for me to move on.”
Several trust officials did not immediately respond to email or phone messages Friday seeking comment.
Patrick had published a letter to the board of directors on Thursday on X, calling his newspaper “shocking.” She wrote it in 2023 for a doctorate in global education from the University of Southern California. Patrick published a part online.
“I think his judgment is now in serious question,” Patrick wrote. “She has a totally different vision of how the story of the Alamo should be told.”
It is the latest episode in an ongoing conflict over how the United States tells its history. Patrick’s call for Rogers’ departure follows President Donald Trump’s push for Washington’s Smithsonian museums to place less emphasis on slavery and other darker aspects of America’s past.
The Alamo, known as the “Sanctuary of Texas Liberty,” attracts more than 1.6 million visitors a year. The trust operates it under a contract with the Texas General Land Office, and the state plans to spend $400 million renovating a new museum and visitor center expected to open in 2027. Patrick presides over the Texas Senate.
In San Antonio, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, the county’s elected top administrator, denounced Patrick’s “gross political interference.”
“We must remove politics from our history teaching. Period,” he said in a statement Friday.
In the excerpt from his article, Rogers highlighted the Texas Legislature’s “conservative agenda” in 2023, including bills to limit what could be taught about race and slavery in history classes.
“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.
His article also mentioned a 2021 book, “Forget the Alamo,” which challenges traditional historical narratives surrounding the 13-day siege of the Alamo during Texas’s struggle for independence from Mexico in 1836.
Rogers noted that the book argues that one of the central causes of the war was the determination of Anglo-Saxon settlers to keep slaves in bondage after Mexico largely abolished it. Texas won the war and was an independent republic until annexed by the United States 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 like the Alamo to be “a place that brings people together instead of tearing them apart.”
“But,” she added, “politically, this may not be possible at present.”
Traditional accounts obscure the role slavery might have played in Texas’ campaign for independence and portray the defenders of the Alamo as freedom fighters. Patrick’s letter called the siege “13 Days of Glory.”
The Mexican army attacked and overran the Texas defenses. But “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry for Texas forces.
“We must ensure that future generations never forget the sacrifice that was made for freedom,” Patrick wrote in his letter to the trust’s board. “I will continue to defend the Alamo today against a rewriting of history.”
