Annie Taylor, Floydada educator who broke the color barrier at Wayland Baptist College in 1951. (Photo courtesy Wayland Baptist University)
By Christina Longoria/Wayland Baptist University (Used with Permission)
PLAINVIEW – In 1951 Dr. James W. Marshall made the decision to voluntarily open Wayland’s doors to black students. Mrs. Annie Taylor had been teaching in Floydada for 25 years, but due to a new state law she needed to take additional classes in elementary education to maintain her state teaching certification. Mrs. Taylor enrolled at Wayland in the summer of 1951 and took six hours of elementary education courses. At the age of 48, she was the first black student to attend Wayland.
Annie Taylor’s great-granddaughter, Andrea Bonner described Annie as a nurturer, giver, and someone who is passionate about education.
“She thought you should always be learning,” Bonner said. “She was very well known and respected in the Floydada community. Her students were also very respectful of her, but that might have had something to do with how she would discipline them by popping them on the knuckles with a ruler if they misbehaved.”
Annie taught for 50 years, retiring in 1972. After retiring she continued to tutor students in the Floydada community. Bonner said students would come to her house, sit in the living room and Annie would tutor them in math. Bonner also recalled having to check out math books every summer on the instruction of Mrs. Taylor, who she affectionately called “Mama.”
In addition to being a great instructor, Annie loved her family, her community and her church.
“She was very strong in her faith and a very staunch Baptist,” Bonner said. “She was the secretary for her church and lived across the street from the pastor’s parsonage. Every week the pastor would come across the street and they would have meetings in her dining room.”
Annie gave back to her community by making fruit bags and giving them to the kids every year after the Christmas play. She volunteered for the Salvation Army, Red Cross and served on the Day Care board and Senior Citizens board. Annie Taylor was a very humble person, and she was a ground breaker who opened doors for more students to go to Wayland.
Bonner is now a professor and administrator at Houston Community College. She credits her great-grandmother with influencing her to be successful in everything she did. She never saw herself becoming a teacher, but thinks now that it was destined for her to be in education. She pulls inspiration from what her great-grandmother taught her, caring for students and working hard.
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