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Trail BlazerThe story of Baylor’s first African-American professor
By Luke Blount
When Dr. Vivienne Malone-Mayes walked into the office of Baylor Dean
George M. Smith in the summer of 1966, he quipped, "I've been looking
for you." Only five years before, Baylor administrators had refused to
admit her as a student because she was an African-American. Half a
decade later, Malone-Mayes would become the first professor at Baylor
to break that racial barrier.
Vivienne Malone-Mayes was born in Waco in 1932. Under the guidance of two well-educated parents, she started school
a year early at North Seventh Street Elementary School. "My parents
told me to tell them I was six," she said. "It was the only lie they
ever told me to tell." Malone-Mayes described her experience in the
segregated public schools as difficult but character-building. All the
textbooks and other supplies were hand-me-downs from the white schools,
and the school building was sub-par. The students were forced to eat
lunch in the classrooms because there was no cafeteria.
After graduating from A. J. Moore High School in 1948 at the age of
sixteen, Malone-Mayes enrolled at Fisk University, earning a bachelor's
degree in 1952 and a master's in 1954. She began teaching at Waco's
Paul Quinn College, a historically black school, before deciding to
pursue further learning. "I wanted to go to Baylor to keep up to date,"
said Malone-Mayes. "I had good students at Paul Quinn. I encouraged
them to go to graduate school. Finally, one said, 'Why don't you?'"
But, following its racial segregation policy, Baylor rejected
Malone-Mayes in 1961. She kept the letter from the Baylor registrar,
which read: "We have not yet taken down the racial barriers here,
although I have been hopeful it would be done eventually. It seems that
everyone is waiting on everyone else and no one will take the
initiative."
The news was disheartening, but Malone-Mayes didn't give up. She
enrolled at the recently integrated University of Texas to pursue a
doctorate in mathematics. In many of her classes, Malone-Mayes was not
just the only black person, but also the only woman. Often, the
students met at the local coffee shop for tutoring with professors, but
Malone-Mayes couldn't attend because Hilsberg's Cafe wouldn't serve
black customers. In 1966, she graduated as only the fifth
African-American woman in the nation to receive a PhD in mathematics.
She then returned to freshly integrated Baylor upon the recommendation
from a UT professor. Baylor was eager to find someone qualified and
strong enough to take on the task as the university's first
African-American professor. Malone-Mayes fit the bill.
When Malone-Mayes joined the faculty in 1966, Baylor had thirty-seven
black students among 6,500 white ones. "The only newsworthy thing about
me is my color," she said in 1967. "People are people." Throughout the
1970s and 1980s, Malone-Mayes saw people become more accepting of
differences, even though some things were slow to change. She said her
race and gender prevented her from rising any higher and that she was
disappointed her presence hadn't encouraged more racial diversity. Even
today, despite a concerted effort by the university to attract more
minorities, Baylor employs just fifteen black faculty members out of
more than 900 (1.8 percent), according to Baylor's Office of
Institutional Research and Testing.
Malone-Mayes retired from a thirty-eight-year career in 1994 and died
the next year from a heart attack. As her career came to a close, she
argued that her initial rejection from Baylor was a blessing in
disguise because it convinced her to pursue a doctorate. "I always feel
like so many things that you think are bad when they are happening can
turn into things that are good," she said.
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