| Summary: | Civil rights activist and minister Reverend Gardner Taylor was born on June 18, 1918 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and began on the path that led to becoming the senior pastor of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York. A stellar reputation as a social activist and theologian, Taylor's sermons were widely read. Taylor enrolled in the Oberlin Graduate School of Theology, where he met and married Laura Bell Scott. After unsuccessfully seeking the presidency of the National Baptist Church Convention in 1961, he and his followers formed the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Taylor taught at prominent divinity schools, including Harvard and Yale. Becoming senior pastor emeritus of Concord, his peers named him the greatest African American preacher and one of America's greatest preachers, as reported in Ebony magazine in 1993. President Bill Clinton bestowed Taylor with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. He passed away on April 5, 2015.
|
|---|
