Civil rights foot soldier Rev. Frederick Douglass Taylor, who served as a lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and more, passed away on Friday.
Taylor, a Prattville native, served in various capacities at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta for more than 40 years. He died in hospice in Austell, Georgia at age 81.
His daughter, Vonya, said he taught his family to be quality people.
“He believed that the highest calling in life was to serve others, and to improve the human condition,” she said.
Vonya Taylor said her father began his mornings well before dawn in prayer and reflection. He then turned to physical exercise, she said.
“At six in the morning he began a two- hour jog and walk through the streets of Atlanta,” she said. “He continued to do that until 18 months ago when he became ill.”
The late Mayor Maynard Jackson, the first African American elected to lead the city of Atlanta, once said that Reverend Taylor, whom he knew well, was “an engineer of social change in Atlanta, in Georgia and in the United States.”
Dallas Civil Rights Leader Rev. Peter Johnson, who joined the Civil Rights movement as a youth as did Reverend Taylor, said that his friend was “fully committed to remaking the world, and to giving those who lived on the margins of American society a brighter future.”
Raised by his grandmother whom he affectionately called “Ma-Dear,” Rev. Taylor initially thought of pursuing a career in medicine.
After completing undergraduate school at Alabama State University, Taylor earned a master’s in divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta in 1969.
That same year he took a position at the SCLC, with plans to remain for only two years. His childhood pastor in Alabama, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, headed the organization when Taylor joined its professional staff.
“It was never my goal to be in leadership,” Rev. Taylor, a resplendent rose in the Civil Rights garden, once said. “It was my sole objective to serve others, to support and encourage them.”
“I was not interested in making a personal fortune,” Reverend Taylor added. “Being part of substantive social change for all people enriched me greatly.”
An associate pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, Reverend Taylor spoke at churches and rallies throughout the nation.
He was one of the final living connections to Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, Dr. Lowery, Rosa Parks, Congressman John Lewis, NAACP board chairman Julian Bond, Rev. Mamie Williams, Ambassador Andrew Young and Rev. Hosea Williams, all Civil Rights legends.
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