The Texas Rangers installed the One Riot, One Ranger statue at Globe Life Field in early March. The 12-foot bronze figure stands in the left field concourse near the north entrance.
Sculptor Waldine Amanda Tauch created the work in 1961, honoring the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency, from which the baseball team takes its name. The statue depicts a lawman with one hand raised to calm a crowd, and the other near his pistol.
It stood at Dallas Love Field airport for decades, until officials removed it in 2020.
Ray Davis serves as the Texas Rangers co-chairman. He spoke at the unveiling, and said the team has worn the Ranger name with pride since 1972. Bob Simpson acts as the other co-chairman. Both men backed the decision to bring the statue to the ballpark as a tribute to law enforcement and the agency’s full history.
Note how CBS calls the statue controversial.
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.
Fans welcomed the figure at the home opener; many posed for photos and treated it as if it were a natural part of the stadium, which is undoubtedly what it is meant to be.
Rep. Marc Veasey (R-Texas) sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the Rangers’ co-chairman, calling for the statue’s removal, claiming it honors a figure tied to resistance to school integration.
I write to express my serious concern regarding the reported installation of a statue connected to the Texas Rangers that honors the late segregationist Jay Bank, a law enforcement figure who was with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s, Texas Rangers investigative unit. Banks was deployed by then-Governor Allan Shivers, to block the integration of one of our local public schools, during one of the most painful chapters of our nation’s civil rights history.
The statue in question commemorates Sgt. Banks, who supervised the Texas Rangers’ role in impeding the integration of Mansfield High School in 1956. That episode was not a moment of pride in Texas history—it was a moment when the power of the state was used to stand in the way of equal rights and the rule of law following the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Even more disturbing is the history surrounding the figure this statue honors. Photographs from that time show Sgt. Banks leaning against a tree while a blackface hanging effigy dangled above the entrance to Mansfield High School—imagery that evokes the terror and intimidation used to keep Black children from exercising their right to an education. The fact that this statue was unveiled just days before Opening Day makes the decision even more shocking. As fans and families prepared to celebrate a new baseball season, they were instead confronted with a monument that echoes the language and symbolism of racial terror.
He argued the display sends the wrong message at a family ballpark. The Arlington NAACP joined his effort, releasing a statement expressing deep disappointment and saying the statue opens old wounds and fails to reflect progress, unity, or opportunity.
The group contacted the baseball team before installation to voice concerns, and the team moved forward anyway.
Woke activists refuse to let history stand when it doesn’t fit their narrative, while demanding the Rangers erase a symbol of Texas law enforcement because parts of the past feel uncomfortable today.
The statue recognizes the agency that helped enforce law and order across the state for generations. Woke critics continue to focus on specific moments from the 1950s and treat those snapshots as the full story, an approach that ignores the broader record, while reducing history to a narrow slice that fits current arguments.
We’ve seen this play from the wokesters before, a pattern that has played out across the country. In this case, the statue came down from Love Field during a wave of removals tied to national unrest. Now the same figure faces renewed pressure, even though it sits on private property inside a ballpark.
Davis and Simpson made a clear decision, choosing to honor the team’s namesake and the law enforcement tradition behind it. They also decided not to fold under pressure to have every historical symbol meet modern expectations.
Fans have responded in a way that speaks louder than strongly worded memos: they line up for photos, bring their families, and treat the statue as part of the experience of going to a baseball game. That response undercuts the claim that the figure is divisive, while showing that many Texans view it as a connection to their state’s identity, not a point of conflict.
The woke left continues to spotlight statues and other historical landmarks because its goal never really changes. Activists identify a symbol, assign it a meaning that fits their argument, and push for its removal.
The Texas Rangers organization declined to follow that path; Davis and Simpson kept the statue in place and accepted the backlash that came with the decision. Veasey and Thomas continue to press their case, and the conversation stays active because that pressure doesn’t fade on its own.
We’re left with a familiar standoff, where one side wants history removed or reshaped, while the other wants it recognized as it stands, with all its complexity. The Texas Rangers ball club chose the second path, placing the statue where people see it, letting them decide for themselves what it represents.
Woke pressure won’t go away; it continues pushing until somebody pushes back. The Rangers ball club did that. They decided, stood by that decision, and left the statue where it belongs.
The figure greets fans at every home game, standing as a reminder that not every piece of history gets erased when the pressure builds.
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