Pioneer Spirit
The first female African American Texas Ranger, Christine Abel Nix, now teaches college students to serve without expectation of reward.
Christine Abel Nix didn’t grow up thinking she’d be the first female African American Texas Ranger.
“I didn’t start considering law enforcement as a profession until later in life,” says Nix, who earned her bachelor’s degree in recreational physical education from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene in 1977. “My plan was always to go into nursing homes and other facilities … help people get up and move around as an activity director.”
The eldest of five children, the South Carolina native, whose father served in the Air Force, spent her childhood in various parts of the world, including Spain and Texas.
“My father was a career Air Force mechanic, and my mother spent most of her time raising us kids, as well as working in the Abilene school district food service,” she says. “Being born in the 1950s in the Deep South, I lived through some pretty turbulent times in our nation’s history. My parents always taught me to see people for who they are, not based on their color.”
Nix graduated from Abilene High School in 1973 and went on to HSU, where she was exposed to the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. It’s an experience she called the starting point of her journey into law enforcement.
“I enrolled into ROTC and loved that,” she explains. “My intent then was to go active Army, but I ended up going into the Reserves, and sort of fell into policing.” After a couple of tours with the Reserves, Nix applied to enter the Temple Police Academy.
She spent two years with the Temple Police Department before logging a year at Fort Rucker, Ala., as a member of a reserve unit. She then went to the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, Calif., where she learned German. In 1984, Nix officially joined the Texas Department of Public Safety as a trooper.
“I wanted to be promoted to a driver’s license sergeant. But, unfortunately, at the time I made the promotion list, the openings weren’t where I wanted to raise my young children,” Nix says. “I started in Pasadena, transferred to Temple, and transferred to the driver’s license division in Waco when I started the promotion process for Sergeant in Driver’s License.”
Not long after arriving in Waco, Nix was promoted to recruiting, gaining responsibility for the 46 counties in Region 6. Then, in 1993, she started the process to become a Texas Ranger. “You must have a combined six years of service to be able to apply for the Rangers,” she says. “In my case, I had both my time with the Temple PD and my time as a trooper. The process leading to selection isn’t easy for anyone.”
Nix was required to complete a written application and exam. She had to master the Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the DPS General Manual, as well as undergo the scrutiny of an interview board. After successfully making the cut through all those steps, she had to navigate rigorous background interviews.
“The background interviews make a determination about character and your political bent [troopers and Texas Rangers, specifically, are nonpartisan in their professional roles], among other things,” she explains. “Ultimately, once you’re selected, you have no say where they send you; you’re assigned where they think you’ll do the most good for the community.”
After being selected as a Texas Ranger, Nix was assigned to her primary duty stations in McLennan, Bosque and Falls counties. In addition to basic interviewing and interrogation training, she also received training in hypnosis, crisis intervention and forensic composite art.
REACH FOR THE STAR Becoming a Texas Ranger requires numer- ous steps, includ- ing a combined six years of law enforcement service. “The process leading to selection,” Nix says, “isn’t easy for anyone.”
It was during one of the hypnosis sessions that Nix recalls one light moment in the serious business of Ranger service.
“We were in the middle of a session. The female witness — who was being hypnotized — opened one eye and asked me, ‘Am I doing this right?’” Nix says, smiling. “Then she
told me I had the prettiest, big brown eyes. The senior Ranger who requested the hypnosis cracked up, and it became a running joke at the office for a while after.”
One of her most poignant memories as a Texas Ranger came on the heels of a murder case.
“We’d spent a lot of time working on this case, and ended up not getting a conviction,” she says. “About six months later, the mother of the defendant called me and asked for help. I reminded her that I was the one who’d been trying to put her son in prison, and that by all rights she shouldn’t have reached out to me for help. That didn’t seem to matter to her.” Nix said that call was a reminder to her to always do her personal best, and that God was ultimately in control of her destiny.
“There were things I saw and was part of in law enforcement that only my faith could have gotten me through,” she says. “Truthfully, it was the only way I could do what I did
without having a lot of problems.”
As the first African-American female in the Texas Rangers, Nix said she felt like she had to prove herself.
“If you’re female and you’re doing your job, you always feel like you need to prove yourself,” she adds. “On the other hand, every Ranger has to prove themselves.”
“The women and minorities who entered DPS and the Rangers after 1980 were pioneers during a transitional period,” says Byron Johnson, director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. “In addition to the substantial duties of Texas Ranger, they also carried the responsibility of proving that women and minorities meet and exceed the requirements of an elite branch of law enforcement. This set an example for those of similar background who’ve followed them. It was not easy, and acceptance wasn’t automatic, but succeed they did, and their accomplishments are a landmark that will stand for generations to come.”
In 2004, Nix decided it was time for a career change and retired from the Rangers. Today, her picture hangs proudly in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco.
“My office was co-located there,” she says. “They’ve done a good job going back and capturing the essence of the Rangers and their history. The exhibits appeal to young and old alike.”
“I’ve been with the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum for 20 years, in the same complex where Christine served,” Johnson says. “Then, as today, we frequently received visitors who wanted to meet ‘a real Texas Ranger.’ Christine was always gracious in taking time to meet visitors and children.
“Many visitors arrived with the stereotype that Texas Rangers were all 6’2” and Anglo,” Johnson continues. “It was interesting to see their reaction when they met Sgt. Nix, who’s African-American and relatively short in stature. After talking with her for a few minutes, the majority left with a new appreciation for the Texas Rangers, their professionalism and the diversity of the service. Such interactions inspire not only adults but the young men and women in school groups who leave inspired by Rangers who are ‘just like them.’”
“I always get a kick out of people — mostly my college students — who visit the Texas Hall of Fame, see my picture, and didn’t know that I was a Ranger,” Nix says. “A lot of people use the museum as a scholarly reference when they’re writing books. It’s very up-to-date.”
When Nix retired from the Rangers in 2004, she had begun her first semester of doctoral studies at Sam Houston State University. In 2014, Nix graduated with a doctorate in criminal justice. The endeavor took 10 years because she also accepted a teaching position in the Criminal Justice Program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton in 2005.
She’s the only full-time faculty and program coordinator and serves as the advisor to the Criminal Justice Student Association and Xi Omicron, the UMHB chapter of the National Criminal Justice honor society. “We started out teaching upper-level [junior and senior] classes,” she says. “Over time, with the help of two teaching partners, Dr. Lesley Olson [Temple College] and Sgt. William Hitch [Woodway Public Safety], we were able to add the lower-level classes, so students are closer to having all criminal justice courses offered at UMHB rather than having to seek out the 18 lower-level hours at different institutions.”
In addition to courses such as Fundamentals of Law, Juvenile Delinquency, and Criminology, Nix’s course load includes Victimology and one of her favorites, Advanced Criminal Investigations.
“In the criminal investigations class, about a month before the end of the course, we set up a mock major crime scene,” she says. “The class has been so successful that we’re running out of places on campus to stage crime scenes and ‘bury’ bodies. We’ve evidently done it so well that many — who aren’t part of the class — think there’s been a crime committed.”
The mother of two says she enjoys her work with students, especially the opportunities she gets to instill ethics and faith in them.
“I see my work with the students as very important,” she explains. “They need someone who’s been there. My expectation is that they’ll go out and do the same thing for others.
“Our motto for the UMHB Criminal Justice Student Association is ‘Serving without expectation of reward,’” Nix adds. “They’re out there to serve the public, and no matter where they go to, I want them ready to go for any agency they work for.”
As a three-time cancer survivor, Nix said her children, her students and staying true to her faith are the things she’s most proud of.
“I’m really enjoying my time with these students,” she says. “I see them come in nervous, and then watch them — over four years — grow and mature; they aren’t the same young people who walked in uncertain and unsure of their next life adventure.”
Nix said an encounter with her kids — after learning she’d been selected for the Texas Rangers — reminded her of who she really is as a person and as a mom.
“I was in the car with my daughter and son, and when I told them I was going to be a Texas Ranger, my son asked me what kind of ‘special powers’ I was going to have,” Nix says, smiling. “My daughter, who was probably five or six at the time, piped up and said, ‘Mom isn’t going to be a Power Ranger — she’s not going to have special powers.’ That totally took the ego out of the picture for me; that’s kept me on the humble path. I don’t have special powers — I’m just Mom.”
“I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve done. I am proud that my parents encouraged me in all of my endeavors, including three college degrees,” she says. “I served with a great Army Reserve unit in Abilene and have worked with some interesting people in criminal justice. Recently, I was able to attend an annual reunion with retirees of the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion and had the opportunity to thank them for being a part of my journey. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
