Texas. Legislature. Joint Committee of the House and Senate in the Investigation of the Texas State Ranger Force.

The Texas Legislature's Joint Committee of the House and Senate in the Investigation of the Texas State Ranger Force was created in January of 1919 and functioned during January and February of that year. The purpose of the Committee was to investigate the actions taken by the Texas Ranger Force during the period from 1914 to 1919.

In 1910 a revolution against Mexico's President Porfirio Díaz had unsettled the populace on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. By 1914, tensions along the border country had been heightened by Mexican nationalism, German intrigue and sabotage, and American draft dodgers. Then, in 1916, Pancho (Francisco) Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico intensified already harsh feelings between the two countries. During the course of these events, the regular Texas Rangers, along with hundreds of special rangers appointed by Texas governors, killed an estimated 5,000 Hispanics along the border between 1914 and 1919.

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