The landmark 1927 musical Show Boat, which was based on the novel by Edna Ferber, was groundbreaking for its time, tackling controversial social issues like racial prejudice, miscegenation (interracial marriage), the struggles of marginalized workers, and the societal limitations experienced by women. For nearly a century, large flat-bottomed showboats traveled the inland waterways of the […]
On April 22, 2026, members of the Baylor community gathered across campus — some in Waco Hall, attending a Turning Point USA event; others on the Quadrangle in protest of Turning Point’s presence on campus; and even more in Hankamer-Cashion Academic Center at the opposing All are Neighbors progressive event option. When the conservative political
Faithful Dissent: A Century of Protest at Baylor Read More »
Of the 15 men who comprised the original Board of Trustees of a doughty little school on the rolling hills near the village of the Independence in 1845, only William M. Tryon and Judge R.E.B. Baylor are known and celebrated today. The others — J.G. Thomas, James Huckins, Albert G. Haynes, Albert C. Horton, R.B.
When I was ten years old, my maternal grandmother, Velma Ray Kay Hugghins, was driving me to the store when she turned toward me with a seriousness I had never seen before. “In 2045,” she began, “there is a time capsule on Baylor’s campus that will be opened 100 years after it was sealed. I
In the 1920s, a sociology textbook landed Baylor University in the entire Baptist General Convention of Texas’ spotlight. In the 2000s, a small research center called the University’s academic freedom into question again. A century after its first evolution controversy, the nation’s largest Baptist university is still wrestling with the same question: What does a
George’s tumultuous life is the stuff of legends, of Hollywood action movies, of dime store novels. He was a restless pioneer. A leader. A stone-cold killer. A mass of contradictions. It’s not a pretty story at times, certainly not by today’s standards, but few people in the American west lived a more eventful life than
“My infidel fellow citizens, my Catholic neighbor, or Jewish friend, must have the same right to read or refrain from reading the Bible, to believe or reject the Bible as he chooses. These are fundamentally American principles.” In 1923 President Samuel Palmer Brooks spoke before the Texas Senate in response to a bill concerning compulsory
Baptists Championed Church-State Separation. Then Came Christian Nationalism. Read More »
In the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 32:35), God tells the people of Israel, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” For members of Waco’s Black community steeped in faith, God seemed to be exacting his revenge, albeit 37 years later. Tyler B. Davis’ book God of the Whirlwind revisits the 1916 lynching of Jesse Washington, which W.E.B.
Baylor University’s beloved origin story — how Texas’ oldest university, a scrappy little Baptist college in tiny Independence, overcame impossible odds, moved to Waco, and became one of America’s great institutions — conveniently glosses over the other significant factor in that transformation: Waco University. And while the larger-than-life presence of irascible, imperious Rufus C. Burleson
The School That Saved Baylor: Legacies of Waco University Read More »
When your father spends his life on the road with B.B. Crimm — the cowboy preacher who wore a 10-gallon hat and carried a six-shooter into the pulpit — ministry feels like an adventure. Now a third-generation evangelist following in his father’s footsteps, Dr. Rob Randall has carried that legacy and adventurous spirit into a
