The statue modeled after a Texas Ranger who kept black students from enrolling in a state high school even after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation was removed from Dallas Love Field airport Thursday.
Author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Doug J. Swanson wrote about the infamous rangers in his upcoming book, titled "Cult of Glory."
Swanson said Banks led a group of rangers to a high school in Mansfield, Texas, and a Texarkana community college, to keep students from enrolling in classes in 1957. That was three years after Brown v. Board of Education made segregated schools illegal in 1954.
"Banks sided with the mobs who were there to keep the black kids out. So, he was the face of that and of a statue that welcomes people to Dallas," Swanson told CBS's Dallas affiliate.
Swanson also said the title of the statue, "One Riot, One Ranger" – was a famous phrase used by the Rangers – came from a tragedy in 1930 when black man, who was on trial for allegedly assaulting a white woman, was confronted in the courthouse by an angry mob burned him alive inside.
The Texas Office of Arts and Culture and the airport decided to move the statue, officials said "a broader community dialogue" about the statue needed to take place.
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