By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
When Barbara Ann Walker and the Rev. Robert Gilbert walked across the graduation stage on June 2, 1967, Baylor University had gone over 120 years without granting a degree to a Black student. The story of Baylor’s integration is long, challenging and still developing, but more than anything, it is a story centered around the actions not of governments or university administrations but of outspoken support from students themselves.
Although it was not until 1967 that Walker and Gilbert received their degrees from Baylor, student advocation for integration began 12 years earlier, in 1955. In response to the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Baylor’s student congress voted unanimously to accept Black students should they want to enroll.
Baylor’s administration was less responsive to the ruling.
Baylor’s president at the time, W.R. White, was a Baptist minister. In accordance with the views of the Southern Baptist Convention, White wrote in a 1957 letter that he would not integrate Baylor unless the board of trustees wished otherwise.
Despite White’s claim, students remained steadfast in voicing their opinions.
David McHam graduated from Baylor in 1958 and taught in the journalism department from 1961 to 1974, serving as the media adviser for student publications. McHam said Ella Wall Prichard, who served as the editor-in-chief of The Baylor Lariat in 1962, wrote an editorial calling for the integration of Baylor, mirroring the view of much of the student population as students, once again, voted in favor of integrating campus in 1963.
Following the numerous petitions from students, the board agreed to the request in November 1963. Although Walker and Gilbert began their coursework in 1965, marking the official integration of Baylor University, work from student advocates was just beginning.
Louis Moore attended Baylor from 1964 to 1969, graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism in 1968 and a master’s in religion in 1969. He served as editor-in-chief of The Baylor Lariat during the 1968-1969 academic year.
Moore said he was able to experience the change in integration firsthand. When he lived in Martin Hall, Baylor’s first Black football player, John Westbrook, moved in in 1966.
“It was quite a sensation for people to realize that Martin Hall was being integrated,” Moore said. “I think we all realized that history was being made right before our eyes.”
Although some of his classmates were not pleased with their new neighbor, Moore said he was able to build a close friendship with Westbrook. However, Westbrook’s life was tragically cut short in 1983, when he died at 36 years old.
This was not the only time Moore would befriend a Black student who needed support while charting the new waters of integrated life. Moore also became close friends with Willie White, another journalism student at Baylor in the late 1960s.
According to Moore, White was a talented writer. He wrote for The Baylor Lariat during his years at Baylor, and with some training from Moore, White became the first Black editor of the student newspaper in 1971. While his talents gave him great success while working at The Baylor Lariat, the challenges of being a Black student among deep-south whites did not disappear.
Moore recalled a time when he and his future wife, Kay Wheeler, drove to Houston with White and another friend for a student journalism conference in 1969. Taking a lunch stop in a small town in central Texas on the way back, Moore recounted a terrifying moment with the residents of the town.
“[The residents of the town] probably presumed that Willie was dating my wife’s roommate, and they probably thought it was an integrated dating relationship,” Moore said. “They stared at us, and they followed us out of the restaurant when we left. It was quite a frightening experience. We got out of there as quickly as we could once we realized they didn’t like what we represented.”
This would not be the only time White was faced with threatening situations. In fact, Moore said discrimination was not uncommon at all.
“Willie had a lot of difficulty because he was Black,” Moore said.
Advocacy and friendship from Moore and other compassionate classmates clearly did not give historymakers like Westbrook and White a free pass into white society, but the support from Baylor students is not to be ignored. Dedicated students played a large role in integrating campus, and Moore said he was proud to be part of a group of students who advocated for the change.
“We felt like we were on the cutting edge,” Moore said. “I’d say my tenure would be most remembered for my support of integration, for civil rights and for the change that was coming.”
