U.S. Rep Marc Veasey wrote a letter to the Texas Rangers and MLB commissioner, calling on them to remove a controversial statue from the stadium’s concourse.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Congressman Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, wrote a letter on Tuesday calling on the Texas Rangers and MLB to remove a controversial statue from Globe Life Field.
On March 2, the “One Riot, One Ranger” statue that once stood at Dallas Love Field airport became a permanent fixture at Globe Life Field, WFAA previously reported. The 12-foot-tall bronze figure is believed to depict Jay Banks, a Texas Ranger with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Banks was a captain with the Texas Rangers in charge of a contingent dispatched to keep Black students from enrolling at Mansfield High School and at a community college in Texarkana, Doug J. Swanson, Pulitzer Prize finalist and longtime reporter for The Dallas Morning News, said in a book about the law enforcement agency.
That statue was removed from Dallas Love Field in 2020, amid renewed scrutiny of the man the statue depicts.
WFAA reached out to the Texas Rangers for comment but did not immediately hear back Thursday. The club did not respond to previous WFAA questions about the statue.
In a letter to Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, and Texas Rangers Co-Chairmen Ray Davis and Bob Simpson, Veasey said the statue contradicts the inclusive values of baseball and the legacy of the sport’s pioneering leaders such as Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby.
“Ballparks should be places where families gather, and fans of every background feel welcome,” Rep. Veasey said in a press release. “Honoring a figure tied to resisting school integration—and doing so with imagery that evokes racist violence—sends exactly the wrong message about who belongs in that space.”
He asked the Rangers and the MLB to remove that statue, and sought to clarify if the MLB “reviewed or approved” the monument and what guidelines govern what can be displayed in MLB stadiums.
“The modern game exists because pioneers like Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby had the courage to break baseball’s color barrier and endure unimaginable hostility so the sport could live up to its ideals,” Veasey wrote in the letter. “To place a monument honoring someone associated with resisting civil rights at a Major League ballpark dishonors that legacy.”
According to a 2020 Associated Press report, Swanson said Banks became the face of the agency’s effort to keep Black students from enrolling in segregated schools, WFAA previously reported.
The statue’s title — “One Riot, One Ranger” — originally came from a report by the law enforcement agency of a scene at the Grayson County Courthouse, where a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman was burned alive after being chased by a mob in 1930, the AP reported.
In a press release announcing the statue’s unveiling at Globe Life Field, the pro baseball team noted the “lengthy history” the statue has in Dallas-Fort Worth. However, it did not address the controversy surrounding the statue.
“The Texas Rangers have long occupied a revered place in Texas history dating to the creation of the organization over 200 years ago, before the days of the Republic of Texas,” the statement by the pro baseball team read in part. “The statue that stood for decades in Dallas will greet guests at Globe Life Field as a familiar symbol of our team’s origin, enduring spirit and connection to the community.”