Black Alumni Alliance Response to the Board's Resolution

The Baylor Black Alumni Alliance Response to the Baylor University Board of Regents' Resolution on Racial Healing and Justice

The Baylor Black Alumni Alliance commends President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D. and Baylor University Regents for the "Resolution on Racial Healing and Justice." Reconciliation is a two way street. A lone party cannot achieve it. The Baylor Black Alumni Alliance stands with outreached hand to work together with our university to help ensure its success in achieving the stated goals in the laudable resolution.

It is paramount that we join together as people who believe in the principles of Christ that are steeped in love and forgiveness.

It was Memorial Day of all days that we as a nation witnessed the specter of racism and inhumanity as Derek Chauvin, an officer of government, used his authority along with fellow officers to slowly and tortuously take the life of fellow Texan, George Floyd. It was an abomination before God! In the aftermath, the outcry across the nation and ultimately the world and we know to the heavens themselves, gave us all pause to look at ourselves and examine the hidden and overt menace of racism that is slowing destroying our nation. America has not been the great nation it could have been because of the unfinished redress of 400 years of subjugation, theft and cruelty of one group of the human race by another. It should be noted that it was for economic reasons that George Floyd left his home of Houston, Texas to go to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a better life. His dream ended sadly by those who should have protected it.

As we consider the Resolution on Healing and Justice, we must remember, words have flowed eloquently from many documents including our nation's founding the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are equal, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Yet there was a need for The Emancipation Proclamation: "I Do order and declare that all persons held as slaves…shall be free." More words flowed from Jim Crow Laws. Presidents have spoken and written many words, such as those in President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 that integrated the U.S. Military and created a pathway to Civil Rights. Along the way, we heard from a nonpolitical leader, who had a dream of equity and equality for America, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, yet another Texan, "Civil Rights Act of 1964" and "War on Poverty" yielded hope. Ultimately President Barack Obama, the first U.S. president of African descent, yet not a descendant of slaves, inspired us to believe "Yes, We Can" move forward as a nation. But the reality of what we witnessed on Memorial Day demonstrated our nation has not arrived at the level of equity that it has espoused since its Declaration of Independence.

We are encouraged that our alma mater is providing the framework for change with its proclamation. This is important and we do not take it lightly because we know God spoke the world into existence. The words spoken by Baylor University are cherished for their efforts toward a new world of equity.

To manifest the spirit of the written words, one must take action to fulfill them. The Baylor University Black Alumni Alliance welcomes the words of President Livingstone. We embrace them with an extended hand to help bring them to life by working in tandem with the University. We look forward to meeting on a regular basis with Baylor University faculty, staff, regents and alumni to build a path for a more excellent university that will fulfill its mission "to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community."