[lg policy] Lifelong Civil Rights Advocate William Taylor Dies

[Harold Schiffman]

Lifelong Civil Rights Advocate William Taylor Dies
By Mary Ann Zehr on June 29, 2010 11:24 AM |

Members of the civil rights community are mourning the passing of
William L. Taylor, a longtime civil rights lawyer and advocate, who
died late yesterday afternoon at age 78. He was the founder and chair
of the Washington-based Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights and a
vice chair* of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights,
also based in Washington (*title has been updated from an earlier
version). He had recently stepped down as the president of the
Leadership Conference Education Fund.

"Bill was one of the very most accomplished desegregation lawyers in
the country, and successfully litigated many school desegregation
suits, which is not a one-time process," said David J. Goldberg, the
senior counsel and senior policy analyst for the Leadership
Conference. Goldberg added: "Even successful suits require years of
enforcement. Bill didn't just win suits and go away. He stayed
engaged." "Whether he was in the courtroom, the halls of government,
or in a congressional hearing room, Bill Taylor was a consistent voice
for equality and justice--a voice that will be deeply missed," U.S.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said today in a statement.

As a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Taylor
litigated a number of school desegregation cases after the U.S.
Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a
statement from the Leadership Conference says.In his post as the
general counsel and staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights during the 1960s, Taylor played a critical role in laying the
foundation for the civil rights legislation of that decade, the
statement also says.Update: "Bill was relentless on behalf of kids
that most people didn't care about," said Amy Wilkins, the vice
president for government affairs and communications for the Education
Trust, in a phone interview with me today. She said Taylor was
"huge-hearted and fearless" on behalf of low-income children and
minority children. While she said she sometimes disagreed with him on
which policy was the right one, she did not question his moral
compass, which was "true."

I had the pleasure of interviewing Taylor on numerous occasions about
the civil rights of English-language learners. When I needed someone
with an institutional memory about that group of students, I turned to
him. I appreciated his direct and knowledgeable answers to my
questions.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2010/06/lifelong_civil_rights_advocate.html


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