{"id":21493,"date":"2019-02-27T11:57:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T17:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=21493"},"modified":"2025-05-27T16:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:11:20","slug":"baylor-unveils-memorial-to-dr-vivienne-malone-mayes-bus-first-black-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2019\/02\/baylor-unveils-memorial-to-dr-vivienne-malone-mayes-bus-first-black-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Baylor unveils memorial to Dr. Vivienne Malone-Mayes, BU&#8217;s first black professor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21494\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bp-vivienne-malone-mayes-bust-dedication_2_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bp-vivienne-malone-mayes-bust-dedication_2_small.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bp-vivienne-malone-mayes-bust-dedication_2_small-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bp-vivienne-malone-mayes-bust-dedication_2_small-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In 1961, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2016\/10\/vivienne-malone-mayes-baylors-first-african-american-professor-trailblazer-for-equal-rights\/\">Vivienne Malone-Mayes<\/a> decided to get her Ph.D. in mathematics, she applied to Baylor &#8212; but was rejected because of her race. So instead, she went to the University of Texas. By the time she had completed her doctoral studies there, Baylor had officially integrated &#8212; and in a beautiful twist of fate, in 1966 the university hired her as its first black professor.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Baylor unveiled a long-overdue memorial to this trailblazer: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BuXPiS1HBP7\/\">a bronze bust of her likeness<\/a>, located on the third floor of the Sid Richardson Building, home to Baylor&#8217;s Department of Mathematics, in which Malone-Mayes taught for almost three decades.\u00a0<strong>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BaylorUniversity1845\/videos\/795508657479060\/\">You can watch the entire 30-minute dedication ceremony via Baylor&#8217;s Facebook page.<\/a> (5\/27\/25: Now archived on <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1aF0sebU6mE\">YouTube<\/a>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an understatement to say that this was a momentous occasion in Baylor history. The room was quite literally overflowing with family, friends, old coworkers and supporters; an overflow area on the floor below was equipped with a live video stream to accommodate the crowd.\u00a0Guest speakers included Dr. Lance Littlejohn (current chair of Baylor\u2019s mathematics department), President Linda Livingstone, Dr. Howard Rolf (chair of the department for most of Malone-Mayes\u2019 Baylor career), Robert Darden (Baylor journalism professor), Dr. Edray Goins (president of the National Association of Mathematicians), and Patsyanne Wheeler (Malone-Mayes&#8217; daughter).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Malone-Mayes has been called a pioneer,\u201d said Rolf. \u201cNow when I was kid, a pioneer was somebody who put their stuff in a covered wagon and went west. For her pioneer journey, what she did was to put her purse in her car, drive to the Baylor campus, walk into Pat Neff Hall, up to the third floor and teach mathematics. Now that doesn\u2019t sound like a very aggressive journey, but in the time and culture of 1966, that was a significant journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Who was Dr. Vivienne Malone-Mayes?\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u9hfw2YWvyI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=u9hfw2YWvyI\">Malone-Mayes<\/a> was absolutely adored by Baylor students for making them fall in love with math. She was even voted Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year just 10 years after she was denied acceptance to Baylor. She was known all over Waco and the Baylor campus for her fiery dedication to justice, serving on several associations dedicated to supporting math education, family, women, children, and mental health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was determined to demonstrate that she was capable and earned the right to be a Baylor faculty member,\u201d Rolf said. \u201cI was not aware of the burden she carried in this role, until she just happened to mention she felt the burden of the entire African-American community on her shoulders. That she viewed that if she failed, it would be viewed as a failure of the whole African-American community. So she was determined to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday&#8217;s ceremony was the fruition of a year-and-a-half long effort headed by Darden, who leads <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2019\/02\/what-is-baylors-black-gospel-music-restoration-project\/\">Baylor\u2019s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project<\/a>. He first realized something needed to be done to honor Baylor\u2019s first black professor when he came upon her gravesite in Waco\u2019s Greenwood Cemetery &#8212; defaced, her image forced out of the gravestone with a crowbar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll I could think was, \u2018This could not pass,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf all this is is a bust, and we walk out of here and I walk out of here, then I\u2019ll have wasted a year and a half. But if we see this as what it could be &#8212; as a guide, as a goad, as a spur to us &#8212; then this will not stand. We will work harder and harder to make sure that we have a representation of the African-Americans and Hispanics and other minorities that we have not done a good job of, so that Baylor University becomes a light on a hill instead of always having to apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finally, to Wheeler, Littlejohn presented a seven-page document of all the positive responses Baylor\u2019s math department received from alumni who were inspired by her mother.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor years, people have asked me \u2018What has Baylor done to honor your mom?\u2019\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cAnd because she had such a humble spirit, I would always say, \u2018Oh they\u2019ve been pretty good to her.\u2019 But now I can say Baylor University has stepped up, showed out, and made us proud. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, Dr. Malone-Mayes!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You might also like:<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em>* <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2018\/03\/50-influential-baylor-women-you-should-know\/\">50 influential Baylor women you should know<\/a> (March 2018)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>* <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2017\/02\/barbara-walker-social-work-leader-and-baylors-first-female-african-american-graduate\/\">Barbara Walker: Social work leader and Baylor\u2019s first female African-American graduate<\/a> (Feb. 2017)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>* <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2016\/10\/robert-gilbert-pastor-civil-rights-leader-and-baylors-first-african-american-graduate\/\">Robert Gilbert: Pastor, civil rights leader, and Baylor\u2019s first African-American graduate<\/a> (Oct. 2016)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1961, when Vivienne Malone-Mayes decided to get her Ph.D. in mathematics, she applied to Baylor &#8212; but was rejected because of her race. So instead, she went to the University of Texas. By the time she had completed her doctoral studies there, Baylor had officially integrated &#8212; and in a beautiful twist of fate, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,20,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-extraordinary-stories","category-history","category-honors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}