Watch the Center for Urban Studies founder and executive director, Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr. in a discussion, along with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, hosted by the African-American Resource Center here.
By Beth Kwiatek and Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.
Reposted from Buffalo News
“Death, destruction and disease in the interest of power and profits are what built our nation. We cannot substitute mythology for history. Nor should we create an ideology that romanticizes and erases the brutality of that history.”
By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.
“The callous killing of George Floyd triggered a massive revolt against police violence and brutality against Blacks. Hostile and dangerous action against Black folk by white police has a long history. But African Americans have been demonstrating against violent police since at least the Chicago riots of 1919. In 1951, a group of Black activists, including the scholar W.E.B. DuBois and the singer-activist Paul Robeson, took a petition to the United Nations titled ‘We Charge Genocide,’ arguing, among other things, that ‘the killing of Negroes has become police policy in the United States.'”
By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr., Beth Kwiatek, and Ian Stern
“Pundits might need to educate the public about the issues, but it is old news to elected officials, public health experts, and urban planners. Yet, this knowledge was never translated into action, down on the ground, in Black communities to blunt the devastation.”
Remarks by Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.
“I am an activist turned scholar, not a scholar turned activist. I started my professional career as a clinical audiologist. My father, who received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1954, always challenged me to use my skills and talents in service of black people and to help build a better, more just and humane world. So, I obtained a Master’s Degree in clinical audiology, and became director of audiology at a small Speech and Hearing Clinic in Newport News, Virginia. In the late 60s, like many of my peers, I was radicalized, moved my clinical operations to near-by Hampton Institute, a historically black college, and joined a militant organization modeled after the Black Panther Party.”