The Passion of My Times: An Advocate's Fifty-Year Journey in the Civil Rights Movement [Hardcover]

William L. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2004

In 1954, William L. Taylor, a recent Yale Law School graduate, joined Thurgood Marshall's NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he would later write the victorious 1958 Supreme Court brief that forced Little Rock, Arkansas schools to desegregate. In this historic book, Taylor recalls the triumphs, setbacks, and ongoing challenges in the battle for civil rights from his own unique and influential perspective. From the tireless struggle to enforce the desegregation of public schools to recent victories protecting the interests of minority schoolchildren in St. Louis, Taylor has influenced policymakers across the political spectrum. He has written landmark pieces of legislation, lobbied them through Congress, and developed strategies that have led to significant social change. In this inspiring insider's account, Taylor discusses civil rights policy over the decades, while also chronicling his encounters with presidents, other legislators, his work with civil rights leaders, and his friendships with the people he has met in the movement. The civil rights movement has been the passion of our times since Brown v. Board of Education. The Passion of My Times is a significant contribution to the literature of the movement and one that promises to energize a new generation of activists.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shortly after his 1954 graduation from Yale Law School, Taylor found his calling: first as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, later as staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1965–1968) and founder of the Center for National Policy Review. His lucid memoir offers an up-close look at the nuts-and-bolts work (collecting data, pushing legislation, securing effective administration of law and policy) behind major moments in the Civil Rights movement and its aftermath. Selma is here, but Senate hearings are more central, as Taylor describes being involved "in big court cases, in major legislative efforts, in planning civil rights strategy, and in persuading people with power or influence to do the right thing." Although there are lively anecdotal touches (Senator Orrin Hatch as "a peculiar amalgam of... Uriah Heep and Ebenezer Scrooge"; U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach provoked into calling Taylor a "cocksucker"), the tone is matter-of-fact. What makes Taylor's book of special value, particularly to historians of the era, is that Taylor neither dramatizes nor romanticizes this work ("We did not establish the conditions that made enactment of the laws possible"), but honors everyone working for change. The movement needed Taylors as well as Kings.
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From Booklist

Taylor, a Jewish civil rights lawyer with long ties to major civil rights groups and figures, recalls his life in the movement. Part memoir, part advocacy, Taylor's recollections highlight the enormous progress that has been made in civil rights and the long road ahead before the nation can be said to have truly achieved equal rights for all citizens. Taylor, then a recent Yale Law School graduate, joined Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1954 and helped to write the 1958 brief that eventually forced school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas. He describes the long and arduous legal struggles behind that victory--and the lives of the individuals affected--as well as the other triumphs and setbacks seen by the movement. He recalls friendships, alliances, and battles with a range of civil rights leaders, presidents, and legislators in the long struggle to desegregate. He also offers an analysis of the continued challenges to securing racial justice. For those interested in legal and political perspectives on the civil rights movement. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786714247
• ISBN-13: 978-0786714247
• Product Dimensions: 15 x 8.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,815,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The bible of modern civil rights advcocy!, January 27, 2005

By 

W. P. McCrone (Tucson, Az. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passion of My Times: An Advocate's Fifty-Year Journey in the Civil Rights Movement (Hardcover)

William Taylor is a gifted writer and one of the great civil rights lawyers of our time. His leadership/insider view of the multiple dimensions of civil rights advocacy [data and testimony collection, Congressional hearings, the courts, regulation enforcement, executive orders, judicial appointment fights, etc.]is must reading for all, particularly people of color, women, people with disabilities, and others who still aspire to justice and the American dream.

Bill McCrone, Ph.D., J.D.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Challenge of Making The Law Work, January 23, 2011

By 

r j martinez - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Passion of My Times An Advocate's Fifty Year Journey in the Civil Rights Movement (Hardcover)

William L. Taylor spent his lifetime advocating for civil rights, justice and equality. His book tells the story of his lifetime efforts from his days as an outspoken college newspaper editor, his early career as a white lawyer working with Thurgood Marshall and others on the landmark desegregation legal case of Brown V. Board and continues through his forty-year career that spanned the conservative presidential terms of Ronald Reagan and George Bush and centrist era of Bill Clinton.

He takes us behind the headlines ranging from personalities such as Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, Bush and Clinton and events related to their tenures such as desegregation, busing, school integration, the War on Poverty and The Voting Rights Act. His narrative details how it was people, white and black, men and women, governors and community leaders who moved us from headlines to reality. He reminds us that American laws and government policies are only as good as their actual application in the real world of American cities and states.

He describes his efforts to organize advocacy groups ranging from professionals to community organizers and reminds us that the measure of professional careers is not fame and fortune but persistence in moving the nation towards justice and freedom for the most defenseless members of society. In the traditions of Howard Zinn and Michael Moore, he reminds us that the real treasure and hope for a greater United States will always be its People.