William L. Taylor
Encyclopedia
William Lewis Taylor was an American
attorney and lobbyist who advocated on behalf of African American
s during the civil rights era and played a major role in drafting civil rights legislation.
Taylor was born on October 4, 1931 in Crown Heights
, Brooklyn
, where he was harassed by his anti-Semitic Italian neighbors, later recalling of his youth that "I remember being pushed around as a kid and being called a 'Christ killer
'". In speeches over the years he said that as a Jewish teenager he had experienced anti-Semitism in a neighborhood that Jews shared mainly with Italians. He first became aware of anti-African American prejudice when he saw whites harassing Jackie Robinson
, when he stepped over the baseball color line
while playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Taylor attended Brooklyn College
, where he was editor of the school paper but was suspended by the college's president for publishing an article that alleged that a professor had been declined tenure based on his political views. College president Harry Gideonse ordered the paper closed after two issues, believing the paper to be Communist-influenced, telling Taylor that "I hate to ruin anyone's career, but in your case, I'm prepared to make an exception." A decade after he graduated from the college in 1952, officials at the college implored federal officials not to hire him for a government job, saying that he had "espoused liberal causes such as the rights of the Negro in the South". Brooklyn College awarded Taylor an honorary degree in 2001, with college president Christoph M. Kimmich calling Taylor "a person who represents what this institution is all about". He would earn his law degree in 1954 from Yale Law School
. He later taught at Columbus School of Law
of The Catholic University of America
, Georgetown University Law Center
and at Stanford Law School
.
During the 1950s, Taylor was a successful contestant on the Tic-Tac-Dough
game show, where he had been offered answers by the producers, which he refused to accept. After appearing before a grand jury investigation of cheating on quiz shows, the jury foreman informed him that he had been the most successful of any of the show's contestants who had not cheated.
Taylor worked with Thurgood Marshall
at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
, assisting in civil rights cases that arose in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education
. After the Little Rock, Arkansas
school board decided to end a desegregation program in 1958, Taylor wrote a brief that convinced the court to require the continued integration of its schools.
He served as general counsel, and later as staff director, at the United States Commission on Civil Rights
during the 1960s, where his research helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964
, the Voting Rights Act
in 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968
. There he helped formulate a voluntary desegregation plan in the 1980s for the St. Louis, Missouri
school system. With United States District Court Judge
William L. Hungate
threatening to impose a mandate to combine the St. Louis and St. Louis County
public school systems, Taylor was able to avert the threat by offering an interdistrict transfer program that the city and county districts agreed to voluntarily.
As vice chairman of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights starting in 1982, Taylor helped revise civil rights legislation. He headed a team of lawyers that wrote a 75-page report early in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, criticizing the administration's interpretations of civil rights law. He was credited with developing the strategy by which liberal organizations recruited law professors to testify against Reagan's nomination
of Robert Bork
to the United States Supreme Court, which ultimately failed in the United States Senate
. Ralph Neas
, who chaired the Block Bork coalition recounted how Taylor's team "examined every article, every speech, every decision, every statement that Robert Bork ever made", providing the supporting material that blocked Bork's path to nomination.
He helped draft the 2002 legislation for the No Child Left Behind Act
, with the aim of increasing the quality of education by monitoring student performance on standardized tests. Former Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings
described Taylor as "a huge champion for closing the achievement gap, for accountability".
A resident of Washington, D.C.
, Taylor died at age 78 on June 28, 2010, at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland
due to fluid in his lungs, the result of a head injury he suffered in an accidental fall one month before his death. He was survived by a son, two daughters and three grandchildren. His 1980 marriage to the former Harriett Elaine Rosen ended with her death in 1997.
Taylor's personal papers and archives were gifted to the Library of Congress.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorney and lobbyist who advocated on behalf of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s during the civil rights era and played a major role in drafting civil rights legislation.
Taylor was born on October 4, 1931 in Crown Heights
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted extending two miles east-west.Originally, the area was known as Crow Hill....
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, where he was harassed by his anti-Semitic Italian neighbors, later recalling of his youth that "I remember being pushed around as a kid and being called a 'Christ killer
Jewish deicide
Jewish deicide is a belief that places the responsibility for the death of Jesus on the Jewish people as a whole.This deicide accusation is expressed in the ethnoreligious slur "Christ-killer." As a part of Second Vatican Council , the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued a declaration...
'". In speeches over the years he said that as a Jewish teenager he had experienced anti-Semitism in a neighborhood that Jews shared mainly with Italians. He first became aware of anti-African American prejudice when he saw whites harassing Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
, when he stepped over the baseball color line
Baseball color line
The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season...
while playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Taylor attended Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, where he was editor of the school paper but was suspended by the college's president for publishing an article that alleged that a professor had been declined tenure based on his political views. College president Harry Gideonse ordered the paper closed after two issues, believing the paper to be Communist-influenced, telling Taylor that "I hate to ruin anyone's career, but in your case, I'm prepared to make an exception." A decade after he graduated from the college in 1952, officials at the college implored federal officials not to hire him for a government job, saying that he had "espoused liberal causes such as the rights of the Negro in the South". Brooklyn College awarded Taylor an honorary degree in 2001, with college president Christoph M. Kimmich calling Taylor "a person who represents what this institution is all about". He would earn his law degree in 1954 from Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
. He later taught at Columbus School of Law
Columbus School of Law
The Columbus School of Law, also known as CUA Law, is the law school of The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C..Over 900 Juris Doctor students attend CUA Law. Incoming classes are typically composed of two to three hundred students, including day and night programs. Around 3,500...
of The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
, Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
and at Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
.
During the 1950s, Taylor was a successful contestant on the Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–1986 run initially on...
game show, where he had been offered answers by the producers, which he refused to accept. After appearing before a grand jury investigation of cheating on quiz shows, the jury foreman informed him that he had been the most successful of any of the show's contestants who had not cheated.
Taylor worked with Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City....
, assisting in civil rights cases that arose in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
. After the Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
school board decided to end a desegregation program in 1958, Taylor wrote a brief that convinced the court to require the continued integration of its schools.
He served as general counsel, and later as staff director, at the United States Commission on Civil Rights
United States Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is historically a bipartisan, independent commission of the U.S. federal government charged with the responsibility for investigating, reporting on, and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues that face the nation.-Commissioners:The Commission is...
during the 1960s, where his research helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, the Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
in 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968
Civil Rights Act of 1968
On April 11, 1968 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, or as CRA '68, and was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
. There he helped formulate a voluntary desegregation plan in the 1980s for the St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
school system. With United States District Court Judge
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri is a trial level federal district court based in St. Louis, Missouri, with jurisdiction over fifty counties in the eastern half of Missouri. The court is one of ninety-four district-level courts which make up the first tier of...
William L. Hungate
William L. Hungate
William Leonard Hungate was a United States Representative from Missouri from November 3, 1964 to January 3, 1977, representing the Ninth Congressional District. Following his retirement from the U.S...
threatening to impose a mandate to combine the St. Louis and St. Louis County
St. Louis County, Missouri
St. Louis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. Its county seat is Clayton. St. Louis County is part of the St. Louis Metro Area wherein the independent City of St. Louis and its suburbs in St. Louis County, as well as the surrounding counties in both Missouri and Illinois all...
public school systems, Taylor was able to avert the threat by offering an interdistrict transfer program that the city and county districts agreed to voluntarily.
As vice chairman of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights starting in 1982, Taylor helped revise civil rights legislation. He headed a team of lawyers that wrote a 75-page report early in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, criticizing the administration's interpretations of civil rights law. He was credited with developing the strategy by which liberal organizations recruited law professors to testify against Reagan's nomination
Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination
The Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination refers to the 1987 nomination by President Ronald Reagan of Judge Robert Bork to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Senate rejected his nomination.-Nomination:...
of Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
to the United States Supreme Court, which ultimately failed in the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. Ralph Neas
Ralph Neas
Ralph G. Neas is CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care , a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to improve America's health care system....
, who chaired the Block Bork coalition recounted how Taylor's team "examined every article, every speech, every decision, every statement that Robert Bork ever made", providing the supporting material that blocked Bork's path to nomination.
He helped draft the 2002 legislation for the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
, with the aim of increasing the quality of education by monitoring student performance on standardized tests. Former Secretary of Education
United States Secretary of Education
The United States Secretary of Education is the head of the Department of Education. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet, and 16th in line of United States presidential line of succession...
Margaret Spellings
Margaret Spellings
Margaret Spellings was the Secretary of Education from 2005-2009 under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and previously served as White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President George W. Bush....
described Taylor as "a huge champion for closing the achievement gap, for accountability".
A resident of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Taylor died at age 78 on June 28, 2010, at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
due to fluid in his lungs, the result of a head injury he suffered in an accidental fall one month before his death. He was survived by a son, two daughters and three grandchildren. His 1980 marriage to the former Harriett Elaine Rosen ended with her death in 1997.
Taylor's personal papers and archives were gifted to the Library of Congress.