Accurately present slave’s role at Alamo
For generations in Texas, stories about the slaughtered defenders of Texas independence at the Alamo celebrated their bravery but minimized their support of slavery. They were fighting for freedom, and part of that freedom was to own slaves.
This tension is at the crux of how the $550 million reimagined Alamo will present Joe, William B. Travis’ slave, one of the few Texan survivors of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.
Deborah Omowale Jarmon, the CEO and director of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, has raised substantive questions to an Alamo advisory committee about how Joe will be presented at the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, which is slated to open in 2027.
She dissented against a decision to approve a bronze statue of Joe armed with a musket. Jarmon, one of three Black members on the advisory panel, is worried that people walking into the Alamo’s new visitor center will see this statue of Joe and assume he was a “happily enslaved” armed combatant supporting the Texas Revolution.
As it stands now, the statue and vignette portrayal of Joe cast on it will be among the first faces people see as they enter the revamped Alamo. Joe will be standing guard as his owner, Travis, a garrison commander, writes his legendary “victory or death” letter urging reinforcements but vowing never to surrender to the Mexican army surrounding the fort.
In the 2015 book “Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend,” Ron J. Jackson and Lee Spencer White write that if we do, in fact, “remember the Alamo,” it’s largely thanks to Joe, who testified days later about what he saw when the Alamo fell. The Alamo also includes some of Joe’s account on its website.
Joe is a prominent player in the Alamo story and should be front and center in any presentation of the story. But it’s paramount that how he is presented is accurate, sensitive and placed in proper context.
It’s interesting that the 21-year-old actor originally from Nigeria who played the part of Joe for a detailed photographic vignette that will be used to cast the bronze statue told the Express-news he was conflicted and consulted with his parents about the role. He decided he didn’t want the character to be forgotten.
Alamo Trust Inc. isn’t working in a vacuum. The work is being done by a team of museum consultants, including renowned historians from around Texas and the United States. A museum planning committee that includes historians, archaeologists, museum experts and community stakeholders also is helping develop new exhibitions and programs.
But the concerns Jarmon raised about how Joe is presented must be addressed.
This shrine will shape how generations not only come to understand our state’s history but our present and future. Jarmon asks if Joe was defending the Alamo or protecting his own life. She also questions the optics of a Black man with a gun.
We have additional questions. Will the decision to include this particular statute of Joe reinforce untruths and stereotypes? Would telling Joe’s story be possible if he isn’t carrying a gun? Is there a way to contextualize the statue of Joe? What process will be used to settle the concerns Jarmon has raised and others that will arise?
If these questions were easy to answer, perhaps the Alamo would have been improved long ago. The Alamo promises a full account of its 300-year history, and we remain optimistic that will happen. In fact, we view this discussion as necessary in that process.
Just as important as the physical preservation of the church and Long Barrack, the recapture of the original mission site and battlefield footprint, and the building of a new world-class visitor center and museum is the inclusion of a fair retelling of the site’s complete history.
The guiding question should be how Texas schoolchildren will understand the Alamo when they visit the site and its new museum.
What story should the new Alamo share about Joe, a slave, and all the other people and stories of the Alamo site? A historically accurate and complete one.
This is central to an honest telling of the famous siege