51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ

PLAINVIEW, TX — 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ Baptist University invites area residents, churches, and alumni to be part of a special campus event during the 2026 Willson Lectures, as nationally recognized historian Dr. Ronald Angelo Johnson delivers the public chapel lecture at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Harral Memorial Auditorium.

Johnson, associate professor of history and Ralph & Bessie Mae Lynn Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University, will present “A History of Revolutionary Faith,” a message based on 1 Samuel 3:7–10 that explores spiritual calling and conviction in both personal life and the life of nations. The chapel lecture is free and open to the public.

Immediately following the chapel service, Johnson will participate in a question-and-answer session at 12:30 p.m. in Room UC211 of the McClung University Center. This extended conversation is also open to the public and offers attendees an opportunity to engage more deeply with the themes of his lecture and his work as a historian.

The Willson Lectures take place Feb. 10–12 on 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ’s Plainview campus. In addition to the public chapel lecture and Q&A session, Johnson will deliver a formal presentation, “New Birth(s) of Freedom in the American Revolution),” during an invitation-only dinner lecture on Thursday, Feb. 12. He also will speak in select 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ classes and participate in community-related events.

One of those events will take place at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Floydada at the Floydada Technology Center, where Johnson will be the featured speaker during a special ceremony renaming the facility the Annie Taylor Technology Center. The event is being presented by the Floydada Economic Development Corp. and Floydada Collegiate Independent School District in association with 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ’s Willson Lectures.

Both Annie Taylor and the Willson family share deep ties to Floydada. Taylor, a Floydada educator, became 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ’s first Black student in 1951, following the university’s decision to voluntarily integrate. The Willsons, longtime Floydada residents, established the endowment that made the Willson Lectures possible. The Floydada program will include participation by community members who were students under Taylor, as well as historical context about the Willson family’s legacy.

51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ’s Mabee Regional Heritage Center also will be on hand with a special display of artifacts and memorabilia from the era when 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ integrated 75 years ago, providing a tangible connection to the events being commemorated.

The 2026 Willson Lectures coincide with the 75th anniversary of two defining moments in 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ’s history: the university’s voluntary integration in 1951 and the establishment of the Willson Lectures endowment by James M. and Mavis Willson. Johnson’s lectures are designed to bring those twin legacies into conversation with broader themes of faith, freedom, and moral courage.

Johnson is the author of several books examining faith, freedom, and the early American world. His most recent work, Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy During the American Revolution, was published in October 2025 by Cornell University Press. He is also author of Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance and co-editor of In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World. He is currently under contract with Princeton University Press for a forthcoming book exploring the early United States and revolutionary Haiti.

51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ encourages students, alumni, pastors, and community members to make plans now to attend the chapel lecture and public Q&A session and be part of this historic year in the life of the university.