Reviewed by:

• East Texas Troubles: The Allred Rangers' Cleanup of San Augustine by Jody Edward Ginn
• Bob Cavendish

On Friday, October 18, 1935, at a time and place of racial unease, a detachment of Texas Rangers dispatched by Governor James Allred arrived in San Augustine bringing liberation from the years-long depredations of the McClanahan-Burleson gang. East Texas Troubles narrates the Ranger campaign begun there during the Ranger transition from paramilitary frontier defense to elite law enforcement. At the same time Allred initiated reforms to end statewide political corruption, Rangers of Company C mobilized quickly to end overt criminal domination of both workingclass Anglos and African Americans powerless to resist intimidation from criminal factions in rural East Texas. Captain James McCormick and his force arrived on a three-fold mission: to drive out or arrest gang leaders, to investigate prior years' gang activities, and to prosecute the hundreds of accusations through indictment and trial.

Prior to Allred, law enforcement in San Augustine was subject to the whims of Governor Miriam Ferguson's political minions' carrying special (purchased) appointments, and their selective enforcement had accommodated thievery, extortion, and racketeering by Charles McClanahan and his thugs. Allred's pledge to eradicate the San Augustine anarchy led to revoking the "Ferguson Ranger" appointments, replacing them with determined professionals ("Allred Rangers") who began building community ties while publicly confronting and intimidating gang leaders. In two months, Allred Rangers had gained the advantage, ending the reign of terror.

As the situation there unfolded, McCormick's team adopted tactics that breached customary racial mores. Proactive outreach with the African American community was effective. Although violence in the White community drove requests for Texas Ranger reinforcements, aggressive investigations revealed the extent of crimes against the more vulnerable Black rural population. Once convinced that Ranger protection included them [End Page 110] as well, Black people provided information and testimony that reestablished stability and order. Despite the eventual demise of the McClanahan faction, however, Jim Crow would linger. Nevertheless, "the collaborative effort between black and white … and the Allred Rangers lifted the community … in an unprecedented defiance of cultural norms" (145).

Author Jody Edward Ginn constructed East Texas Troubles from court records, newspaper articles, archival holdings, interviews, and secondary material. Given the preponderance of material in which White Texans were principals during dramatic incidents such as the shotgun ambush of Edward Brackett or the daylight shootout in downtown San Augustine that killed four people, Ginn might have couched this narrative as a twentieth-century reform crusade. Yet reform also meant the racial alliance that gave Rangers the advantage, suggesting a glimmer of nascent moral sensitivity at work. In context, however, the Ranger-Black Texan coalition was a component of a larger community recovery effort important to, but not strictly the focus of, Ginn's research. Captain McCormick devised a sophisticated strategy that ran counter to freewheeling shootouts. The long-awaited cleanup was complicated, and tracing the larger story was difficult. Appeals, trial delays, or changes of venue, for instance, left gaps if public records failed to include their mention or reference, as occasionally occurred. "The limited volume and type of records surviving in San Augustine is far from unique as most localities lack the resources necessary for maintaining closed cases for decades on end" (178). The omissions are not fatal, however, and the San Augustine operation joins Ranger lore.

East Texas Troubles is not a "one-riot-one-Ranger" tale. The San Augustine cleanup was a yearlong effort during which Rangers developed tactics empowering local Black people to defy oppression in Jim Crow society. Fair disclosure: Ginn is the great-grandnephew of Allred Ranger Dan Hines. He does not romanticize Ranger interactions with Black San Augustinians or suggest they led to permanent racial healing, and his book is an objective and well-told chronicle of Ranger professionalism that briefly overrode social prejudice.

审核人：

• 东德克萨斯州的麻烦：乔迪·爱德华·吉恩（Jody Edward Ginn）对圣奥古斯丁的Allred Rangers清理
• 鲍勃·卡文迪什

1935 年 10 月 18 日星期五，在种族不安的时间和地点，由州长詹姆斯·奥尔雷德 (James Allred) 派遣的德克萨斯游骑兵分队抵达圣奥古斯丁，从麦克拉纳汉 - 伯利森团伙多年的掠夺中解放出来。东德克萨斯问题讲述了游骑兵从准军事边防过渡到精英执法期间开始的游骑兵战役。在 Allred 发起改革以结束全州的政治腐败的同时，C 公司的游骑兵迅速动员起来，结束工人阶级盎格鲁人和非洲裔美国人的公开犯罪统治，他们无力抵抗东德克萨斯农村地区犯罪派系的恐吓。詹姆斯·麦考密克上尉和他的部队执行了三项任务：驱逐或逮捕帮派头目，调查前几年的帮派活动，以及通过起诉和审判起诉数百项指控。

在 Allred 之前，圣奥古斯丁的执法受制于总督 Miriam Ferguson 的政治随从的心血来潮，他们持有特别（购买）的任命，他们的选择性执法容纳了查尔斯·麦克拉纳汉和他的暴徒的盗窃、敲诈勒索和敲诈勒索。Allred 承诺根除圣奥古斯丁无政府状态导致撤销“弗格森游骑兵”的任命，取而代之的是坚定的专业人士（“Allred 游骑兵”），他们开始建立社区联系，同时公开对抗和恐吓帮派头目。两个月内，Allred Rangers 取得了优势，结束了恐怖统治。

随着局势的发展，麦考密克的团队采用了违反习惯种族习俗的策略。与非裔美国人社区的主动外展是有效的。尽管白人社区的暴力事件促使人们要求增援德克萨斯游骑兵，但积极的调查揭示了针对更脆弱的黑人农村人口的犯罪程度。一旦确信游骑兵的保护也包括他们[End Page 110]，黑人提供了重新建立稳定和秩序的信息和证词。然而，尽管麦克拉纳汉派系最终消亡，但吉姆·克劳会留下来。尽管如此，“黑人和白人……以及 Allred Rangers 之间的合作努力提升了社区……前所未有的对文化规范的蔑视”（145）。

作者乔迪·爱德华·吉恩制造了东德克萨斯的麻烦来自法庭记录、报纸文章、档案馆藏、采访和二手资料。鉴于在爱德华·布拉克特的霰弹枪伏击或在圣奥古斯丁市中心造成四人死亡的白天枪战等戏剧性事件中，白人德州人作为主体的材料占主导地位，吉恩可能会将这种叙述表述为 20 世纪的改革运动。然而，改革也意味着种族联盟给了流浪者队带来了优势，这表明工作中有一丝新生的道德敏感性。然而，在上下文中，Ranger-Black Texan 联盟是更大的社区恢复工作的一个组成部分，这对 Ginn 的研究很重要，但不是严格的重点。麦考密克上尉设计了一种复杂的策略，与随心所欲的枪战背道而驰。期待已久的清理很复杂，追踪更大的故事很困难。例如，如果公共记录未能包括他们的提及或参考（偶尔发生），则上诉、审判延迟或地点变更会留下空白。“在圣奥古斯丁幸存的有限数量和类型的记录远非独一无二，因为大多数地方缺乏持续数十年维持已结案件所需的资源”（178）。然而，这些遗漏并不是致命的，圣奥古斯丁的行动加入了游侠的传说。

东德克萨斯的麻烦不是一个“一个暴动一个游侠”的故事。圣奥古斯丁清理是为期一年的工作，在此期间，游骑兵制定了使当地黑人能够反抗吉姆克劳社会压迫的策略。公平披露：Ginn 是 Allred Ranger Dan Hines 的曾孙。他并没有将游骑兵与黑人圣奥古斯丁人的互动浪漫化，也没有暗示他们导致了永久性的种族治愈，他的书是一部客观且广为人知的游骑兵专业精神编年史，短暂地克服了社会偏见。