Death of Civil Rights Voice - Elisa Weich 5th period

The Rev. Gardner C. Taylor was a grandson of slaves who went on to become a Baptist preacher in Brooklyn in 1948. He used his position to become an influential voice for civil rights. Taylor died on Easter Sunday in Durham, N.C. at the age of 96. 

Mr. Taylor's influence as a speaker, writer, and political force in his area and to the nation surpassed his 10,000-member congregation at the Concord Baptist Church of Christian Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. His words reached the world as he travelled to South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Denmark, England, Scotland, Australia, China, and Japan as well as throughout the United States. He has received multiple awards and recognitions for his service because of it's impact on the nation. 

He was especially passionate about the importance of black churches in America, as in this passage cited by nationalministries.org: 

“One of the great contributions of the black church was giving to our people a sense of significance and importance at a time when society, by design, did almost everything it could to strip us of our humanity. But come Sunday morning, we could put our on dress clothes and become deacons, deaconesses and ushers, and hear the preacher say, ‘You are a child of God’ — at a time when white society, by statute, custom and conversation, just called us ‘n---ers.’ 

Mr. Taylor fought for civil rights in schools and all over the nation and was driven by his friend Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  to continue the fight for equality among the races. 

I think it is important that we honor such an influential man because of the advances in the civil rights movement he caused. Without his encouragement for the common God-fearing man to take up the fight the process would have lasted a lot longer and racism would be more prominent in society. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/us/rev-gardner-c-taylor-powerful-voice-for-civil-rights-dies-at-96.html?referrer=