Gardner Calvin Taylor was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 18, 1918. He received a divinity degree from Oberlin College in 1940. Before becoming the senior pastor of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 1948, he was a pastor at churches in Ohio, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge. He was the pastor there until his retirement in 1990.
He gained national prominence in 1961 when he, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other black clergy members left the National Baptist Convention over its tepid support of civil rights and founded the Progressive National Baptist Convention, which was committed to social justice, desegregation, and affirmative action. In New York, Taylor organized civil rights marches and was arrested three times during protests in the 1960s. In 2000, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
He wrote several books during his lifetime including How Shall They Preach, The Scarlet Thread, Chariots Aflame, We Have This Ministry, and Faith in the Fire: Wisdom for Life. He died from a heart attack on April 5, 2015 at the age of 96.
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