Baylor University Students Rallied in Favor of Removing Monument of the University’s Co-Founder
Jose Nino
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America’s culturally radical experiment will never end.
On February 1, 2021, a number of Baylor University students kicked off a protest in front of the statue of Judge Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor, calling for its removal. According to the Baylor Lariat, the demonstration took place on the 176th anniversary of Baylor University’s founding and the first day of Black History Month.
According to Dion J. Pierre of Campus Reform, the protesters were dressed in all-black and held Black Lives Matter signs as they surrounded the statue for a photograph.
“The point of the picture is not to remove Judge Baylor as a whole,” student Sam Onilenla commented. “It’s to remove Judge Baylor from campus. I don’t want to see it on campus because I know I’m not supposed to be here, according to him. Having him off campus is going to be the start of racial healing.”
Onilenla continued by observing that Baylor was a “slave owner…and Confederacy supporter” whose effigy has no place “right in front of Waco Hall.”
“There’s nothing religious about killing slaves or having those ideas,” Onilenla declared.
The Baylor student wants the Baylor statue to be moved to the Mayborn Museum.
The protest of this statue was motivated by an incident in January when the Baylor University Police Department was called in to address a noise complaint against black students in the library.
One officer allegedly said, “this is not a basketball arena. This is a study area.”
According to the Baylor Lariat, the students were offended by the officers’ statement, which led them to create a petition that ended up receiving over 3,000 signatures.
On February 16 to 17, the Baylor Board of Regents reviewed a report and heard presentations by the Commission on Historic Campus Representations. This commission was set up in 2020 to determine if any “statues, buildings, or other tangible tributes on the Waco campus reflect a racist past.”
This entity will likely determine the fate of the Baylor monument.
Texas has not been exempt from the cultural radicalism that most of the nation has been subjected to during the last year.
In a BLP report, athletes at the University of Texas were considering the removal of “The Eyes of Texas” song because of its supposedly racial connotations.
Texas right-wingers need to get ready to defend their heritage. The fights ahead will be cultural in nature and very much outside the milquetoast economic subjects they generally talk about.
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