Alamo Trust CEO Out After Lt. Gov. Patrick Demands Resignation

One day after Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for the resignation of Kate Rogers, the president and CEO of the Alamo Trust, she is reportedly "no longer" with the organization.

According to The San Antonio Express-News on Friday, Rogers resigned Thursday after Patrick called on her to step down from the organization, which manages the legendary San Antonio site.

He said she should not be heading the organization over views she had expressed in her 2023 doctoral dissertation that suggested she disagreed with the state's Republican leaders on how the Alamo should be remembered.

The Alamo Trust was scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss next steps, but has not issued a statement about Rogers' employment.

An automatic email reply from her account said simply that she was "no longer" with the Alamo Trust.

On Thursday, Patrick sent a letter to the Alamo Trust's board of directors, stating that Rogers' writings were "incompatible with the telling of the history of the battle of the Alamo."

"I believe her judgment is now placed in serious question and makes clear she has a totally different view of how the history of the Alamo should be told," he said, according to The Texas Tribune.

Patrick posted an excerpt of Rogers' dissertation on social media, in which she described competing political views between Republican state leaders and local officials from Bexar County and the city of San Antonio.

She wrote that Republicans, as the Alamo undergoes a $550 million redevelopment, want the project to focus on the 1836 battle with Mexican forces, while local officials want it to "tell the full story of the site, including its beginning as a home to Indigenous people."

Rogers said she hoped the Alamo would become "a beacon for historical reconciliation and a place that brings people together versus tearing them apart," but added that "politically, that may not be possible at this time."

Rogers, who was serving as executive director of the Alamo Trust at the time, noted that she had to be "very careful with my study and its implications, as it could have negative consequences" for the Alamo project, as well as my job."

Her dissertation, which examined historic sites and museums and their role in supporting social studies instruction in K-12 classrooms, also described the "conservative agenda" of the 2023 legislative session. She added that lawmakers passed bills banning educators from teaching Critical Race Theory or discussing slavery.

Rogers also referenced the book "Forget the Alamo," which argues that maintaining slavery motivated the Texans' independence fight, and wrote that she does not believe politicians should determine what is taught in classrooms.

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, issued a statement urging the Alamo Trust to give Rogers "all due consideration and the full opportunity to contextualize her writings."

The restoration and expansion of the Alamo will include a new museum and visitor center, slated to open in 2027. It will feature eight galleries covering the history of the Alamo and its legacy.

"Of course, the entire story of the Alamo will be told, but the overriding emphasis must be on the '13 Days of Glory,' as nearly 200 men gave their lives to defend liberty and freedom for Texas," Patrick said Thursday, adding that he would "continue to defend the Alamo today against a rewrite of history."

Meanwhile, San Antonio leaders are speaking out about Patrick's actions. The city is a major partner in the renovation project, having invested $38 million and leased about 1.4 acres of right-of-way to the state around Alamo Plaza.

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones told the Express-News that Rogers had been a model leader at the Alamo, and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai called Patrick's demands for her resignation "gross political interference."

"The next thing you know, they will be denying Japanese internment," said Sakai, who is Japanese American, referring to the confinement of Japanese Americans in Texas and nationwide during World War II.

"We need to get politics out of our teaching of history, period," he added.