An exhibition documenting the violence and murders of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans on the Texas border was awarded a national grant from the American History Association, the genius grant, which will be used to shed a light on some neglected part of the American history.

The bilingual, traveling exhibition titled “Life and Death on the Border, 1910-1920,” from the “Refusing to Forget” project, chronicles a decade of state-sanctioned racial violence and terrorism that took place largely along the Texas-Mexico border in the United States in the 1900s.

According to information from the University of Texas at Austin website, “Refusing to Forget is a collaborative, interdisciplinary project with members from across Texas. It was founded in 2014 when a group of professors met to discuss ways to commemorate the centennial of a period of widespread and state-sanctioned anti-Mexican violence along the Texas-Mexico border. Since its founding, the project has worked to bring this and other neglected histories back into public awareness in myriad ways, including through lectures and museum and online exhibits. This work also enables Refusing to Forget to engage with and inform the public about civil rights issues that span the last century and beyond”.

Many people have not had access to a decade-long history of state-sanctioned killings, including lynchings and “numerous executions of innocent people. Some people were robbed of their land, and families were driven from their homes. There were deadly raids on communities, as well as illegal detentions”, according to NBC News.

“The exhibit relies on state-held documents, photos and even a graphic postcard to tell and support the story of the violence, which was committed largely by the Texas Rangers — a state police force — and local law enforcement. With the grant of $74,000 from the American History Association, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the organizers hope to take the exhibit to cities across Texas next year, coinciding with the bicentennial of the Texas Rangers”.

The exhibition, marked by the denunciation of racial violence, has been on display for eight years and signaled the first recognition of violence by a state institution, according to Monica Muñoz Martinez, co-founder of the project and author of “The Injustice Never Leaves You”. Since then, more than 40,000 people from Texas and across the country have traveled to the museum to view the exhibit.