The Injustice Never Leaves You

Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas

Monica Muñoz Martinez

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780674244825
  9780674976436
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674989405
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Winner of the Caughey Western History Prize
Winner of the Robert G. Athearn Award
Winner of the Lawrence W. Levine Award
Winner of the TCU Texas Book Award
Winner of the NACCS Tejas Foco Nonfiction Book Award
Winner of the María Elena Martínez Prize
Frederick Jackson Turner Award Finalist

"A page-turner…Haunting…Bravely and convincingly urges us to think differently about Texas's past."
—Texas Monthly

Between 1910 and 1920, self-appointed protectors of the Texas–Mexico border—including members of the famed Texas Rangers—murdered hundreds of ethnic Mexicans living in Texas, many of whom were American citizens. Operating in remote rural areas, officers and vigilantes knew they could hang, shoot, burn, and beat victims to death without scrutiny. A culture of impunity prevailed. The abuses were so pervasive that in 1919 the Texas legislature investigated the charges and uncovered a clear pattern of state crime. Records of the proceedings were soon filed away as the Ranger myth flourished.

A groundbreaking work of historical reconstruction, The Injustice Never Leaves You has upended Texas's sense of its own history. A timely reminder of the dark side of American justice, it is a riveting story of race, power, and prejudice on the border.

"It's an apt moment for this book's hard lessons…to go mainstream."
—Texas Observer

"A reminder that government brutality on the border is nothing new."
—Los Angeles Review of Books

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Divine Retribution
• 2. From Silence
• 3. Denial of Justice
• 4. Cultures of Violence
• 5. Idols
• 6. Reckoning with Violence
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index