24. An American West Law Enforcement Legend Takes on the Ku Klux Klan
Frank Hamer was not a progressive on the issue of race by any means, and harbored his share of the era’s widespread racism. However, he had a sense of fairness and justice, and a respect for law and order that rendered lynchings and mob violence against blacks repugnant in his eyes. After a year as a federal Prohibition agent, he rejoined the Texas Rangers, and was assigned to Austin as a Senior Ranger Captain. In 1922, he led the fight in the Lone Star Republic against the Ku Klux Klan, which was experiencing a boom at the time.
Throughout his career, Hamer saved at least 15 people from lynch mobs led by the KKK, often by threatening to shoot the baying rioters. By then, his reputation as a deadly lawman you don’t want to mess with had been solidly established not just in Texas, but throughout the entire West. His only failure occurred in 1930 when Hamer and a handful of Rangers were tasked with protecting a black rape suspect in Sherman, Texas. A huge mob stormed the courthouse, and although Hamer shot two of them, they set the building on fire and forced the Rangers to retreat.
