Reverend Frederick Douglass Taylor, civil rights gladiator, dies at age 81

By Joseph Green BishopArise Rejoice News ServiceRev. Frederick Douglass Taylor, whose presence in the American Civil Rights movement is critically important, died on the evening of June 21, at Tranquillity Hospice in Austell, Ga.& He was 81-years-old.A lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mrs. Ross Parks, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Ambassador Andrew Young and others, he served in various capacities at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta for more than forty years.Rev. Fred Taylor and his daughter, Vonya, shown here protesting South African apartheid in 1986. Photo: Courtesy photo Rev. Taylor died from respiratory failure, said his daughter, Vonya, who held her father in her arms as his life slipped away.“My daddy always taught me, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren to be quality people,” Vonya Taylor said. “He believed that the highest calling in life was to serve others, and to improve the human condition,” she added.Taylor said that her father, Rev. Taylor, who was born in Prattville, Ala., began his mornings well before dawn in prayer and reflection. He then turned to physical exercise, she said.“At six in the morning he began a two- hour jog and walk through the streets of Atlanta,”...