By Zainab Richardson | Staff Writer
Change does not happen on its own; it happens as a result of the efforts of everyday people. However, those who enforce the change are often forgotten.
The Baylor University Institute for Oral History hosted the Black History Month Walk to honor the people in history who might have been forgotten. The annual event hosted about 100 people through the streets of Waco Saturday morning, beginning at the McLennan County courthouse.
Attendees walked through key locations in the city, pausing to learn about Black individuals who shaped Waco’s history.
According to Assistant Director of the Institute of Oral History Adrienne Cain Darough, the idea stemmed from the Waco History app, which features an interactive map of Waco pinning various sites of historical significance. Cain Darough and her director, Dr. Stephen Sloan, who also is a professor of history at Baylor, used the map to create a walking tour of Waco focused on Black history.
“[We] were thinking, what are ways that we can make this like a sort of public engagement?” Cain Darough said. “How can we get people to engage with this material in a way that they can learn? And so we had the idea to do a walk, to map out a walk of some of the entries.”
Most of the information was already available to use, but with over 230 entries in the app, Cain Darough said it was difficult to narrow down which part of Waco had the most relevant history. Eventually, they settled on downtown.
“We wanted something that could allow us to tell as many stories as possible in a reasonable time frame, in a reasonable mileage because, yes, we’re walking and stopping, but we also want to make it to where it’s not taxing on anybody,” Cain Darough said.
For those in attendance, it was remarkable to learn about the forgotten history of Black people who made an impact, and that they made an impact in Waco. Jenna L. Bonham, a Wacoan and attendee of the event, said she moved from Austin and wanted to learn more about the history of her new city.
“There’s a lot more culture here, Black culture, brown culture, Hispanic culture here, than there was in my hometown,” Bonham said.
Some attendees, like Jason Spivey, have always lived in Waco. Spivey, a college history major, said many of the facts about his own hometown shocked him.
“I didn’t know [about] … some new resources like the Waco History app,” Spivey said. “I’ve got to learn more about the city that we live in.”
