Urban renewal programs swept across the United States in the mid-twentieth century. Funded by the federal government, cities throughout the country sought to improve local architecture and expand…

Without the construction of Waco Hall, Baylor University might reside in Dallas, Texas. In the early 1900s, some Baylor representatives pushed for the university to relocate and had already placed…

At the end of the Civil War, a new nation seemed to be on the horizon. Emancipation and the beginning of Reconstruction signaled a shift in national, state, and local institutions across the country.…

St. James United Methodist Church, originally a Methodist Episcopal church, has existed almost as long as the city of Waco itself. Founded in 1874 by Anderson Brack, a formerly enslaved man, the…

Tragedy marked the experiences of many during the Vietnam War. On the home front, Americans increasingly questioned the country’s role in the conflict and lamented the loss they watched unfold…

On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, heard the news of their freedom. More than two years earlier, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation to establish the…

Born the daughter of educators in segregated Mexia, Texas, in 1941, Mae Allison Johnson developed an early understanding of the significance of education and equality. Her parents, Allison Johnson and…

For many immigrants throughout the 1800s, the United States seemed to be a land filled with promise. Texas, in particular, appeared to be a place where dreams could be fulfilled. Otto Monnig, a…

On a muggy, Texas summer night in 1982, tragedy struck. Three Waxahachie teenagers—Raylene Rice, Jill Montgomery, and Kenneth Franks—were murdered in Speegleville Park, near Lake Waco, on July…

In 1969, in response to health-care disparities in Waco and McLennan County, local leaders and physicians established the Family Practice Center, now called Waco Family Medicine. Prior to these…