On Juneteenth

In Chapter 5, Gordon-Reed discusses the centrality of the history and myth of the Alamo to Texas and what it indicates about the role that myth plays in writing Black people out of history to preserve certain narratives and images about Texas’s history. Black Texans have to confront the doubleness of being both Black and Texan when “Black” and “Texan” have been constructed in opposition to each other in much the same way “Blackness” and “Americanness” have been constructed. 

She recalls the 1967 re-release of the movie, The Alamo. Noting she already knew about the Alamo prior to this movie and prior to a fourth grade Texas history class because of its centrality to Texas myth and legend, the depiction of an enslaved character made her think about the fact of enslaved people being present at the Alamo even though they were never discussed. She did not know at the time the real life Jim Bowie inherited enslaved people from his father and made a living as a slave trader and plantation owner prior to coming to Texas. The purpose of the movie and the history narrative shared in classes then was to create a neat, heroic narrative about Texas’s fight for independence.