ENROLLED
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 50
BY REPRESENTATIVE JAMES
A RESOLUTION
To express the condolences of the House of Representatives upon the death of the Reverend
Doctor Gardner Calvin Taylor.
WHEREAS, the Lord God Almighty reassigned a spiritual general in His Army, the
Reverend Doctor Gardner Calvin Taylor, from Earth to eternal rest, fittingly on Resurrection
Sunday, April 5, 2015, at the age of ninety-six; and
WHEREAS, born to Washington Monroe Taylor and Selina Taylor in Baton Rouge
on June 18, 1918, Gardner C. Taylor was baptized into the fellowship of Mount Zion First
Baptist Church, pastored by his father, and where he also served as pastor from 1943-1947;
and
WHEREAS, a 1937 Leland College graduate, Gardner C. Taylor was granted a
bachelor of divinity degree at the Oberlin School of Theology and was awarded fifteen
honorary doctorate degrees throughout his ministry; in 1948, Dr. Taylor was called to pastor
The Concord Baptist Church of Christ in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn,
New York, where he served the eight thousand member congregation, now numbering ten
thousand members, for forty-two years until his retirement in 1990; and
WHEREAS, under his leadership, The Concord Baptist Church of Christ established
a credit union to provide loans denied to blacks by commercial banks; the church also
established a one hundred twenty-one bed nursing home, a center for the elderly, and an
elementary school; Dr. Taylor was termed "the dean of black preachers in America" by Time
magazine in 1980; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Taylor not only espoused the Word of God, he was a mentor and
close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a prominent figure in civil rights in the
1960s; and
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WHEREAS, in 1961, Dr. Taylor and Dr. King separated from the National Baptist
Convention, U.S.A., the nation's largest black Christian denomination, and founded the
Progressive National Baptist Convention, which was and continues to be committed to social
justice, desegregation, and affirmative action; Dr. Taylor served as its president from 1967
to 1969; and
WHEREAS, although arrested three times during civil rights protests in the 1960s,
Dr. Taylor was best known for his quiet, effective activism: he was a director of the Urban
League of Greater New York, a member of the New York City Commission on Intergroup
Relations, and a leader in the Kings County Democratic organization; and
WHEREAS, his resounding timbre and the wisdom expressed in his sermons earned
Dr. Taylor the privilege of lecturing and preaching in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi,
Denmark, England, Scotland, Australia, China, and Japan and at universities and churches
throughout the United States; he also preached the pre-inaugural sermon for President
William Jefferson Clinton in 1993; President Clinton awarded Dr. Taylor the nation's highest
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2000; and
WHEREAS, more than two thousand of Dr. Taylor's sermons have been archived at
the Robert W. Woodruff Library in Atlanta, many of which are included in a collection of
his sermons in the tome, The Words of Gardner Taylor: 50 Years of Timeless Treasures; and
WHEREAS, the conclusion of the life of Dr. Taylor is aptly described in the holy
book upon which he founded his faith, in II Timothy 4:7: "I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing".
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby express deepest condolences to the family, friends, and
former congregations of the Reverend Doctor Gardner Calvin Taylor upon his passing; does
hereby extend sincerest sympathies to those whose lives were touched and transformed by
this man of God, powerful in word and deed; and do hereby offer prayers and hopes for
comfort in the knowledge that Dr. Taylor's close, personal relationship with his Savior and
Lord brings full truth to John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life: the one that believes
in me, though dead, shall live again".
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
to the family of Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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