Taylor, Susan L.
1946-present · Contribution: 1970-2008
Magazine editor
Rose from freelance beauty editor to editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, a post she held from 1981 to 2000, becoming, according to a 1994 American Libraries assessment, “the most influential black woman in journalism” of her era
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1946, Harlem, New York
- Active since
- 1970
- Category
- Press & Photography
- Best known for
- Editor-in-chief of Essence and 'the most influential Black woman in journalism' of her era
Impact on the world
Taylor grew Essence's readership into the millions and, without a college degree at the start, became the defining editorial voice for Black women in American magazines.
An alternative history
What Would the World Look Like Without It?
One contribution. Many possible consequences. No single-person origin story.
Imagine this selected contribution absent, not the person or the entire field. The areas below are reflection prompts related to this discipline, not verified chains of direct dependency.
Sources
- Source lookupFind
BlackPast.org
Exact source links open the cited record. Source lookups help locate legacy references whose original records did not include a direct URL.
2 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Gillespie, Marcia Ann
1944-present
Became editor-in-chief of Essence magazine at age 26 in 1971, then, in 1993, editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine, making her the first African American woman to lead a mainstream national magazine not aimed specifically at Black readers
Thompson, Era Bell
1905-1986
Served as international editor of Ebony magazine for roughly two decades within a nearly 40-year career at Johnson Publishing Company, traveling to 124 countries and shaping the magazine’s global coverage of the African diaspora
Bennett, Lerone Jr.
1928-2018
Spent more than fifty years at Johnson Publishing Company’s Ebony magazine, rising to executive editor, and used its pages to publish groundbreaking popular history, above all Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America (1962), that made him the era’s most widely read chronicler of the African American past
Norris, Michele L.
1961-present
Became the first African American woman to host NPR’s flagship program All Things Considered in 2002, then created The Race Card Project in 2010, a Peabody Award-winning national storytelling initiative that has collected more than 500,000 six-word narratives about race and identity