Statue at Globe Life Field reignites debate over Texas Rangers' racial history

As the Texas Rangers celebrated Opening Day, another issue drew attention off the field, causing backlash for the organization. 

A controversial statue honoring the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency now sits at Globe Life Field, sparking debate over history, race, and how the past should be remembered.

Inside the stadium, beyond the faces of fans, stands a 12‑foot‑tall Texas Ranger – the "One Riot, One Ranger" statue. It was installed in the left‑field concourse last month, six years after the city of Dallas removed it from Love Field following the 2020 protests and national reckoning over racial injustice. It had stood at the airport since 1961.

"We have worn the ranger's name now since 1972 with pride," said Ray Davis, the club's owner, the day the statue was installed.

But depending on who you ask, that pride is complicated by the history behind the figure that may have inspired it.

"I'm disappointed once again," said Arthur Fleming, the president of the Black Block Vote. "That statue has character and it's a racist character."

Others disagree.

"People need to realize it is a statue, not a statue of any one individual," said Russell Molina with the Texas Ranger Association Foundation.

Historian links statue to segregation era 

"Cult of Glory" author Doug Swanson, who wrote about the Texas Rangers' violent past in 2020, said multiple accounts suggest the statue depicts the late Texas Ranger Captain Jay Banks, who tried to stop integration at Mansfield High School.

"So, Banks became sort of the face at this time, of a state‑sanctioned, racial segregation of public schools," Swanson told CBS News Texas.

Swanson also uncovered a photograph of Banks with an effigy of a Black man hanging by a noose in the background at Mansfield High School.

"Banks himself said he was the model. Banks' daughter, in her biography of her father, said he was the model," said Swanson. "Numerous stories in newspapers, local newspapers, that came out at the time that the statue was revealed to the public, said he was the model. There were photographs of Banks standing next to the statue."

Rangers deny statue depicts Banks 

The Rangers organization and the Texas Ranger Association Foundation deny the statue depicts Banks. CBS News Texas reached out to the Rangers for comment. They pointed to a statement released when the statue was installed, saying it commemorates "the legend surrounding the agency's involvement in the stoppage of an unsanctioned Dallas prize fight in 1896, it also stands as a tribute to all who have served the organization over its storied history."

"It represents all of DPS, as that statue represents the rangers of the 1960s, which, if you look at the base, that's what it actually says," said Molina.

Civil rights leaders call for removal 

Local NAACP chapters said honoring this figure undermines civil rights and sends the wrong message to the Black community.

"We have to stop promoting things that was associated with hate, and if we're going to get along as a community, as people working together, even in the entertainment district, then we cannot put up things that are so controversial," said Angela Luckey, president of the NAACP Grand Prairie chapter.

Ahead of Opening Day, Congressman Marc Veasey said he sent a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and Rangers co‑chairmen Ray Davis and Bob Simpson, stating the statue contradicts the values of baseball and the legacy of pioneering leaders such as Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby.

Calls for context or conversation

While some Black leaders are calling for the statue's removal, others said that, at a minimum, more historical context should be added. While both sides differ on what the statue represents, they agree that a deeper conversation about its symbolism is needed.