Taylor, William L., 1931-2010

Civil rights lawyer and educator.

From the description of William L. Taylor papers, 1971-1996 (bulk 1987-1992). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70983850

William Lewis Taylor (October 4, 1931-June 28, 2010) was a prominent lawyer and civil rights activist. For over five decades, he advocated tirelessly on behalf of African-Americans facing discrimination in education, housing, and voting, and played a key role in writing federal laws guaranteeing the rights of all Americans regardless of race. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1954, Taylor began his career working for Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, assisting with civil rights cases in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In 1958, after the school board in Little Rock bowed to local resistance and suspended desegregation efforts, Taylor helped write the NAACP legal brief that persuaded the Supreme Court to require schools to comply with the Brown decision. In the 1960s, as general counsel and staff director for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in the Johnson administration, he led the investigations into racial discrimination that laid the groundwork for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Soon after, he went on to found his own civil rights organizations, first the Center for National Policy Review at Catholic University, and later the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, where he focused on the implementation of federal civil rights laws and on school desegregation litigation. Since 1982, he also served as vice chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in Washington, working to pass and strengthen civil rights legislation. He went on to help draft the 2002 No Child Left Behind legislation and defended it against challenges. He received the first Thurgood Marshall Award from the District of Columbia Bar in 1993, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Award from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 2001.

From the description of William L. Taylor papers 1954-2009 (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 755082014

Biographical Note

• 1931, Oct. 4: Born, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• 1952: B. A., Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• 1954: LL. B., Yale University Law School, New Haven, Conn. Married Harriet Rosen
• 1955: Clerk, Office of the Corporation Counsel, New York, N.Y. Admitted to New York state bar
• 1955 - 1958 : Staff attorney, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, New York, N.Y.
• 1959 - 1961 : Legislative representative, Americans for Democratic Action
• 1961 - 1963 : Assistant staff director for liaison and information and special assistant to the staff director, United States Commission on Civil Rights
• 1963 - 1965 : General counsel, United States Commission on Civil Rights
• 1965 - 1968 : Staff director, United States Commission on Civil Rights
• 1968 - 1969 : Senior fellow, Yale University Law School, New Haven, Conn.
• 1970 - 1985 : Director, Center for National Policy Review, Catholic University Law School, Washington, D.C. Faculty member, Catholic University Law School, Washington, D.C.
• 1971: Published Hanging Together: Equality in an Urban Nation. New York: Simon and Schuster Admitted to District of Columbia bar
• 1974: Published Justice Delayed and Denied? Report of Investigation into Conduct of HEW’s Handling of Responsibility Under Title VI. Washington, D.C.: The Center for National Policy Review
• 1986: Established private law practice, Washington, D.C.
• 1986 - : Adjunct professor, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.
• 1996 - 1997 : Visiting professor of law, Stanford University Law School, Stanford, Calif.

From the guide to the William L. Taylor Papers, 1971-1996, (bulk 1987-1992), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)