By Camille Cox | Staff Writer
On July 13, Baylor officials removed the Rufus Burleson statue previously located at the front of The Quadrangle, following the lines of the Commission on Historic Campus Representation’s 2021 report.
According to Jason Cook, co-chair of the Campus Experience Project Team, the initial plan for the statue was for it to be relocated immediately to a less prominent area on campus; however, because of the fragile state of the statue, it will return to campus after its refurbishment.
“We immediately found that the statue was unstable and that it needed to have extensive refurbishments,” Cook said. “This is all with the hope that the statue will be reinstalled by the end of the fall semester.”
In early 2021, the Commission on Historic Campus Representations — which was composed of members of the Board of Regents, faculty, staff, alumni and students — presented its recommendations to President Linda Livingstone and the Board of Regents after investigating and analyzing the university’s history.
Cook said the commission was established in the summer of 2020 by the Board of Regents after significant racial strifes broke out across the nation.
“Instead of simply issuing a statement, like so many other universities had done, the administration said we need to do an in-depth analysis and look at our own history to see if anything there might be problematic, but also, is there anything on our campus that we need to provide some additional historic context to,” Cook said.
In the report, the commission details the life of Rufus Burleson, who was Baylor’s president from 1851 to1861 at the Independence campus and from 1886 to 1897 at the Waco campus. In his life, Burleson was a slave owner, a Confederate chaplain and a prominent promoter of the “Lost Cause” following the Civil War. While serving as president, Burleson encouraged 50 Baylor students to join the Confederate Army.
“Although Burleson deserves recognition for his leadership as Baylor’s president and for his contributions to the Baptist denomination during the early history of Baptists in the State of Texas, he arguably stands as the most controversial of all of Baylor’s early leaders due to his attitudes and behaviors with regard to slavery and the Confederate Army’s role in the American Civil War,” Baylor’s Burleson biography reads.
Along with the decision to move the Burleson statue to an area between Draper Hall and Georgia Burleson Hall, the board approved a four-phase plan to implement the recommendations of the commission. These steps include changing the name of Burleson Quadrangle to “The Quadrangle,” reconceptualizing and redeveloping the area surrounding Speight Avenue and The Quadrangle, adding historical information throughout campus and designing and addressing the monument for the unknown enslaved.
Houston junior Nayiri Ohanian said she understands the need for the removal of the statue but simultaneously realizes people may be upset about it.
“I kind of have an indifferent opinion about this decision because I don’t have any legacy here, but I understand how people with deep ties to Baylor might be upset with this,” Ohanian said. “At the same time, it’s a new day and age, and a lot of things have to change to be progressive and inclusive.”
Cook said that the Campus Experience Project Team now works deliberately to tie each decision to the commission report to address the recommendations. They will be working side by side with Sasaki — an architectural firm with prior university design experience — to develop a comprehensive plan for the campus’ historic elements.
“We really want [The Quadrangle] to become a space where the Baylor family comes together and the university’s past, present and future can be celebrated together,” Cook said.
Looking forward, Cook confirmed the statues of the first Black graduates at Baylor — the Rev. Robert Gilbert (BA ’67) and Barbara Walker (BA’67) — will be installed outside of the Tidwell Bible Building in the spring of 2023.
“We are not erasing Baylor’s history, but rather working with a deliberative, additive approach to tell the complete story of the university,” Cook said.
