Baylor Dedicates Statues to the First Black Graduates
On Tuesday, Baylor University dedicated two new statues on its campus to the university’s first two Black graduates, the late Rev. Robert L. Gilbert, and Mrs. Barbara A. Walker.
Both Walker and Gilbert graduated on June 2, 1967. After Gilbert received his degree, he spent his life working to help those around him as a pastor, educator, and a pioneer of civil rights in the greater Waco community. His son, Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, attended the unveiling, and said that Baylor is choosing to remember history the right way.
“The university said by way of this act that it chooses to be a university that remembers history rightly. To be forward thinking and to be scrupulous in seeking out tangible ways to reimagine responsibility to the future,” Kenyatta Gilbert said.
Walker became a licensed social worker. She spent over three decades working in the field of social work, later leading the state of California’s department of Mental Health Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health Programs. Walker attended the ceremony and dedicated her statue to her mother.
“So, I just want to- in memory of my mom, dedicate my statue to her. Cause she was such a wonderful woman. And-and in her being able to do what she did for me I feel like we both went to Baylor,” Walker said.
Both pieces will stay outside of the Tidwell building permanently, as both Walker and Robert Gilbert took most of their classes in there while they studied at Baylor. Each statue stands around 7 feet tall and weighs around 500 pounds.
A representative from the mayor’s office brought a proclamation from the mayor to the ceremony, that stated that the day of the unveiling, April 4, 2023, would be known as Rev. Robert and Barbara Walker Day in the city of Waco, Texas.
Sculptor Benjamin Victor created the statues. He is the only living person to have three pieces in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capital building. He also has a fourth piece that will be soon added to the National Statuary, depicting Arkansas civil rights leader Daisey Bates.
Baylor University President Linda Livingstone, and Baylor Board of Regents Chair Mark Rountree were at the dedication outside of Baylor’s Tidwell building. Later, there was a reception at the McMullen-Connally center.
“Through their perseverance, in the face of tremendous adversity and injustice they paved the way for Baylor to grow to a multicultural welcoming place for thousands of new students each and every year,” Livingstone said.
This event is just one of several renovations coming to Baylor’s campus in the next few months to acknowledge Baylor’s history with race. Baylor University has plans to relocate the statue of Rufus Burleson, one of the University’s first presidents, from the currently named Burleson Quadrangle, to a spot between two academic buildings on campus. The Burleson Quadrangle will also be renamed to simply The Quadrangle. The University has plans to create a monument to the unknown number of enslaved individuals that helped build the University’s first location in Independence, Texas.