Kate Rogers says state leaders pushed her out after objecting to an Indigenous Peoples’ Day tweet and criticizing her academic work, actions she argues were protected speech.
The Alamo may be a shrine to Texas identity, drilled into schoolchildren as the place where a doomed band of rebels made their last stand during the Texas Revolution, but its former director is now waging a new battle in federal court.
Kate Rogers, the former president of the Alamo Trust, which manages the historic mission, filed a lawsuit Monday against the organization, according to court documents obtained by Urgent Matter. Her complaint also names Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham among the defendants.
Rogers was forced to resign last month after a series of actions that angered Patrick and Buckingham, beginning with a tweet from Alamo Trust celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day—formerly known as Columbus Day.
The “unacceptable” tweet prompted Buckingham, who has oversight of the landmark, to opine on social media that “Woke has no place at the Alamo.” She then launched an investigation aimed at “holding those responsible accountable.”
Later in the month, Patrick called for Rogers to resign in a post to social media, in which he said he was “made aware” of “troubling writings” by Rogers. The offending text was a copy of Rogers’ 2023 dissertation for her doctorate in education.
In it, Rogers had expressed her views about the Alamo’s role “in bringing people together instead of tearing them apart by helping to reconcile different historical interpretations,” according to her lawsuit. Texas students are typically taught a mythologized version of the battle that focuses on heroism and sacrifice while minimizing the roles of enslaved people and Native Americans.
Adam Schrader
“Rogers’s beliefs and speech so infuriated Lieutenant Governor Patrick and Commissioner Buckingham that they ignored the protections the First Amendment guarantees to citizen speech and directed the board of directors of the Alamo Trust to end Rogers’ employment immediately,” her lawyers said in the lawsuit.
Rogers, a self-described “conservative at heart,” later spoke to Texas Monthly about her termination and pushed back on allegations that she had a political agenda in leading Alamo Trust.
“I wholeheartedly agree with Dan Patrick—politics does not have a place at the Alamo,” Rogers told Texas Monthly. “It’s our most treasured historic site, the Shrine of Texas Liberty. And what we tried to do, what I tried to do, was to keep politics at bay on both sides in terms of the extremes.”
Adam Schrader
But after that interview, the Alamo Trust and the Remember the Alamo Foundation allegedly retaliated against her by revoking their severance offer to Rogers.
“The fighters at the Alamo courageously held off Santa Anna’s troops for thirteen days. But Lieutenant Governor Patrick and Commissioner Buckingham only needed eleven days to lay siege to the First Amendment,” the lawsuit said.
Rogers accuses the defendants of violating her rights under the First Amendment and is seeking reinstatement, monetary damages and a court declaration that her termination was unconstitutional.
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