Clarence Taylor

Clarence Taylor, a Professor of History at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the public schools of East New York and Canarsie in Brooklyn and received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College and his MA from New York University. After graduation from NYU, Taylor embarked on a career as a social studies teacher in New York City’s public schools and pursued a Ph.D. in history at Graduate School of the City University of New York, graduating in 1991. He held faculty positions at Le Moyne College and Florida International University before joining CUNY. Among his many publications are The Black Churches of Brooklyn from the 19th Century to the Civil Rights Era (Columbia University Press, 1994); Knocking At Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools (Columbia University Press, 1997); Black Religious Intellectuals: The Fight for Equality from Jim Crow to the 21st Century (Routledge, 2002); and Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights and the New York City Teachers Union is also published by Columbia University Press (Columbia University Press, 2011). He is also co-editor of Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader in the Black Struggle (New York University Press, 2000) winner of the Gustavus Myers Prize in 2001, and editor of Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the Giuliani Era (Fordham University Press, 2011). Prof. Taylor’s research interests are the modern civil rights and black power movements, African-American religion, and the modern history of New York City. He is finishing a book on how African Americans in New York City addressed police brutality from the 1930s to the Giuliani Administration.