![]() ![]() “In the latter part of 1921 a situation developed which bid fare to become the forerunner of disaster,” Owen White wrote in his 1923 book “ Out of the Desert: A Historical Romance of El Paso,” discussing the KKK’s rapid rise to power in local affairs. The Ku Klux Klan’s role in El Paso’s place name geography is significant, and sheds light on how racism shaped the city during the 20th century. “Because so much of what we consider to be valuable history is based off of Anglo-American history, we have more figures that are Anglo-American that have monuments and schools named after them then we do for Hispanic people.” The Ku Klux Klan’s impact on El Paso El Paso is a microcosm of that,” Klayel-Avalos said. Anglo-American figures were seen as the predominant figures. “For a large part of United States history, Anglo-American history was seen as the predominant culture. I asked El Paso Independent School District Trustee Freddy Klayel-Avalos (who led the effort to rename Lee Elementary) why he thinks that El Paso, a city with a disproportionately Hispanic population, has such a high number of sites named after non-Hispanic white people (men, mostly). Lee Elementary School in Northeast El Paso is in the process of being renamed. ![]() In El Paso, this conversation has heated up, with calls for the removal of the Juan de Oñate statue at the El Paso airport, and a change-of-name effort for Robert E. In response to the police killing of George Floyd, there has been a wave of increased attention to racist figures memorialized in local landmarks, and heightened demand for the removal of names and monuments glorifying individuals who were proponents of white supremacist ideology. The whitewashing of community history is often most apparent in place name geography: the names of schools, public parks, and streets. Consequently, many stories of marginalized people get glossed over, dramatically revised, or left out entirely. ![]() It’s worth mentioning that a historical analysis such as this is necessarily incomplete because, when those in power are white supremacists, that means that white supremacists write the history books. This article will explore some of the ways that white supremacist ideology has impacted El Paso throughout the past century. Racism in El Paso has taken many forms: racial covenants among home owners in Kern Place, bans on interracial dating for UTEP athletes, former Ku Klux Klan members turned city leaders. Long before a white supremacist marched into a Walmart to massacre innocent people, the worldview and cultural understandings espoused by that shooter had already held strong sway in El Paso, shaping significant periods in our past, and deeply scarring our present. El Paso, like the rest of the United States and much of the world, is deeply imprinted with a legacy of racist ideology. ![]()
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