Hundreds of Baylor University students, staff and community members gathered Friday morning on Founders Mall to dedicate the new Memorial to Enslaved Persons — a monument recognizing the enslaved men and women whose labor helped build the school nearly two centuries ago.
The limestone memorial anchors the historic center of Baylor’s campus. It features two circular rings with flowing water and 33 illuminated openings — one for each known person enslaved by Baylor’s founders, including the university’s namesake, Judge R.E.B. Baylor.
Baylor’s founders and early leaders were slaveholders who vehemently defended slavery and, later, the Confederacy. The university has said that acknowledging this history is key to fulfilling its Christian mission.
“When Baylor was founded in 1845, chattel slavery was deeply woven into the fabric of Texas,” said Baylor President Linda Livingstone. “Our founders, including Judge Baylor, were both religious leaders and slaveholders. The incompatibility of Baylor’s Christian mission and its roots in slavery require a reckoning with this legacy.”
The memorial is one of several initiatives that stemmed from Baylor’s 2020 Commission on Historic Campus Representations, formed amid a national reckoning on race. The commission examined how Baylor’s history — including its ties to slavery — was reflected in campus monuments, names and landmarks, and made recommendations for how to address those legacies.
Dr. Michael Harlan, a member of Baylor’s Board of Regents who served on the commission, said the memorial recognizes the humanity and legacy of those enslaved individuals.
“Their names may not appear in Baylor’s official record, but their fingerprints are forever in the soil and the soul all over this campus,” Harlan said. “Today, we do not simply remember their suffering — we affirm their humanity. We not only memorialize their labor — we celebrate their legacy.”
The university has also added a plaque to the statue of Judge Baylor on the edge of Founders Mall, acknowledging his history as a slaveholder.
Livingstone said she hopes the new memorial becomes a space for students, staff and visitors to reflect on Baylor’s past — and what it means for the community’s future.
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