Memorial to Enslaved Persons Updates

Construction is progressing toward the opening of the Memorial to Enslaved Persons on Founders Mall.

As we survive through this hot Texas summer and hopefully enjoy a break from the hustle and bustle of the school year, parts of Founders Mall are being reimagined. If you look now, you will see the construction fences that signify years of preparation coming to fruition.

Gathering on Baylor University’s historic Founders Mall alongside members of the University and Waco communities, the Baylor Board of Regents concluded its regular quarterly meeting today with a ceremonial groundbreaking of the Memorial to Enslaved Persons, one of the recommendations in the final report from the University’s Commission on Historic Campus Representations.

With construction set to begin this summer on the Memorial to Enslaved Persons, Baylor University held a symbolic ceremony today on Founders Mall to transfer custody of its Centennial Time Capsule from the Class of 1945 to The Texas Collection at Baylor.

As we prepare to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, let us, as a community, consider some of Dr. King’s most powerful words.

This spring, Baylor released the first detailed renderings of an addition to Founders Mall called the “Memorial to Enslaved Persons.” A report by Baylor’s Commission on Historic Campus Representations recommended the new memorial as an opportunity to honor the enslaved persons “who were instrumental in constructing the original campus where Baylor University began its journey” and whose identities remain unknown.

Last year, we wrote about Baylor’s plans to address many of the priorities named by the Commission on Historic Campus Representations — recommendations aimed at more completely telling the history of the university, particularly with regards to some early leaders’ slaveholding past. Last week, the university released the first detailed renderings of an addition to […]

We’re going to start Black History Month with a bang!

Baylor University is celebrating the diversity of the Baylor Family in a number of ways.

On Friday, Baylor Regents approved the outline of a plan that will address many of the priorities named by the Commission on Historic Campus Representations last year — recommendations that would more fully tell the history of the university and its early leaders. Many of the details are still in development, but the concepts released […]

WACO, Texas (March 23, 2021) – Baylor University today released the full independent and unedited report of the 26-member Commission on Historic Campus Representations, which was charged by the Baylor Board of Regents with independently reviewing and evaluating the historical record and context of the University and its early leaders solely related to slavery and the Confederacy.

WACO, Texas (July 6, 2020) – Baylor University today announced the members of the 26-member Commission on Historic Campus Representations – established as part of a unanimously passed resolution by the Board of the Regents on June 26 that acknowledged the University's historical connections to slavery and the Confederacy – and the specific charges that will guide the work of the Commission.

These are extraordinary times in our nation and in higher education, and I am honored to be the Chair of Baylor’s Board of Regents as we walk through these days together. I am equally honored to be working alongside the selfless, committed Administration of our University.

WACO, Texas (June 26, 2020) – As both “an opportunity and an obligation to pursue racial healing as an expression of the Christian faith and adherence to Biblical principles of justice and love,” the Baylor University Board of Regents has unanimously passed a Resolution on Racial Healing and Justice that openly acknowledges the University’s historical connections to slavery and the Confederacy. The Board’s acknowledgement initiates a process on racial conciliation across the University and calls on the Board and the University to “pursue opportunities to inclusively explore and engage in significant conversations about this aspect of the institution’s past.”