Kate Rogers, the former president of the Alamo Trust which manages San Antonio’s historic site, sued Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and the trust’s board Monday, weeks after she resigned under pressure from conservative officials.
Rogers filed the suit in federal court, seeking to reclaim her old job and asking for an unspecified amount of damages from Patrick, Buckingham and the board. In the suit, Rogers claims that Patrick and Buckingham “ignored” her First Amendment protections in urging the Alamo Trust to remove Rogers because of a 2023 dissertation asserting the importance of Indigenous people’s history at the Alamo. She also alleges her severance pay was revoked after a Texas Monthly story was published in which she discussed conservative backlash that began after an October social media post celebrating Indigenous People’s Day.
“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 suit read.
The suit also names the nonprofit Remember the Alamo Foundation, Alamo Trust Board Chair Welcome Wilson Jr. and Esperanza “Hope” Andrade, the current Alamo Trust president and former Texas secretary of state, as defendants. The lawsuit was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News.
Patrick called for Rogers’ removal from the trust in October as he, Buckingham and others criticized the dissertation Rogers wrote while a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. Buckingham also chastised a post on social media platform X from the official Alamo account celebrating Indigenous People’s Day, writing that “Woke has no place at the Alamo.”
Patrick allegedly personally pressured Rogers to resign and publicly call her dissertation a “distraction” before hanging up because she would not agree to keep the call a secret, according to the suit.
Yet despite the criticisms, the lawsuit paints Rogers as a leader walking a tightrope between several groups wrestling to assert their preferred vision for the Alamo — including Patrick and Buckingham. The suit describes a “power struggle” between the two, and that Buckingham “objected to Lieutenant Governor Patrick’s heavy involvement” with the Alamo Trust. It claims Buckingham and her staff expressed approval of Rogers’ performance on multiple occasions.
I was aware of this story and was disappointed but far from surprised when Kate Rogers resigned, but I didn’t follow it closely. What I know is mostly what’s in here. I’ll keep an eye on this going forward, mostly because I hope Dan Patrick totally eats it in court. Beyond that, I never ever want to hear any whining about “cancel culture” or being a “free speech warrior” again. The Current has more.