Taylor, Gardner Calvin

Impact on the world

After a disputed 1960 National Baptist Convention presidential election against incumbent J.H. Jackson, who had publicly opposed the direct-action protest tactics championed by Martin Luther King Jr. and his allies, Taylor and fellow minister L.V. Booth led a walkout that founded the Progressive National Baptist Convention in 1961, a new denomination grounded explicitly in support for the civil rights movement that grew from 33 founding members to over two and a half million today and provided Martin Luther King Jr. a Black Baptist denominational home after his ongoing dispute with Jackson left him without one.

Life & background

A close friend of the King family, Taylor ran for the presidency of the National Baptist Convention in 1960 with the backing of ministers sympathetic to Martin Luther King Jr.'s campaign of direct-action civil disobedience, challenging longtime incumbent J.H. Jackson, who had publicly criticized the tactics used by Freedom Riders protesting interstate bus segregation and who feared King's own rising influence might threaten his hold on the convention's presidency. Both Taylor and Jackson claimed victory in the contested election, and the dispute remained unresolved through a chaotic 1961 annual meeting in Kansas City during which a Jackson supporter sustained injuries on the convention floor that proved fatal days later; Jackson was ultimately reelected. In the meeting's aftermath, Taylor and fellow minister L.V. Booth led a walkout of dissenting ministers who founded the Progressive National Baptist Convention that same year, a new denomination built around explicit support for the civil rights movement's social and political goals, including voter registration, economic empowerment, and opposition to South African apartheid; the new convention gave King Jr. a formal Black Baptist denominational home at a moment when his relationship with Jackson's National Baptist Convention had left him without one. Taylor went on to a long, celebrated career as pastor of Brooklyn's Concord Baptist Church of Christ, was once described by Martin Luther King Jr. himself as among the finest preachers in the nation, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton in 2000; the Progressive National Baptist Convention he helped found has grown to over 2.5 million members worldwide.

Sources

1. Stanford Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute; Progressive National Baptist Convention official history (PNBC.org)