Rev. Dr. Robert L. Taylor dies at 95

During an era when Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America, the Rev. Dr. Robert L. Taylor wasted no time bringing black and white religious leaders together during the rest of the week.

Dr. Taylor's bridge-building civic and religious leadership was recognized in 1974, when he was honored with the Brotherhood Award by the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

"Dr. Taylor was not only a great pastor and preacher but also a strong convener of the early ecumenical movements in the city of Richmond, bringing denominations, religions and races together," said Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, a Baptist minister.

Dr. Taylor, a civil rights activist and pastor emeritus at Fourth Baptist Church in Church Hill, died Saturday at a Richmond nursing home. He was 95.

From 1952 until his retirement in 1986, Dr. Taylor led Fourth Baptist, one of the oldest African-American congregations in Richmond.

"He was deeply invested in the welfare of Richmond and was highly visible in addressing inequities, whether they were economic or racial," said Dr. John W. Kinney, dean of the Virginia Union University School of Theology. "And he always guided and challenged us as young ministers to be socially active and community conscious."

Dr. Taylor was born on May 26, 1916, in Hanover County. He was a 1936 graduate and class president at Armstrong High School, and he received four degrees from VUU. The Rev. Dr. Grady W. Powell Sr., pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg from 1961 to 1997, called Dr. Taylor a role model and "the finest person I've ever known."

"Bob was one of the first, if not the first, black pastor who had an interracial service with a white church," he said, recalling Fourth Baptist's late-1950s service with Weatherford Memorial Baptist Church, whose pastor was the Rev. J. Levering Evans.

"He was also a pioneer in civil rights," Powell said. "It was not unusual that Robert L. Taylor would speak before the City Council about issues of ethics and morals."

In 1960, Dr. Taylor was among a group of black and white ministers who met with representatives from downtown stores whose eateries refused service to black VUU students and had them arrested.

During a six-month boycott, Dr. Taylor personally turned over his Thalhimers credit card to William B. Thalhimer Jr., the store's vice president, and reopened his account when the stores were desegregated.

After the assassination of his friend, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Taylor gathered with other members of the interdenominational and interracial Richmond Area Clergy Association for a prayer vigil on the steps of the state Capitol.

During an interview more than two decades later, Dr. Taylor said the vigil was part of an effort "to keep this city as calm as possible." A police officer escorted him to his car and waited as he drove away.

"I was aware of the threats … that someone may be hurt, shot or assassinated," he said, adding there was a rumor that one way to have something happen in Richmond was to kill some prominent blacks.

"The interracial climate in Richmond was one of the factors responsible for the calm and the sense that seemed to prevail during the crisis period after his assassination."

The Rev. C. Nicholas Dombalis, dean emeritus of the Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Richmond, was with Dr. Taylor at the Capitol after King's assassination and also when both received the Brotherhood Award.

"We were very close to each other. He possessed a huge amount of warmth, a feeling for others," said Dombalis, 86. "And this is what I think made him the individual who, wherever he went, was warmly accepted."

Dr. Taylor practiced a cordial but insistent agitation, constantly prodding the community toward engagement, whether the cause was heating fuel for the poor, opposition to apartheid in South Africa, or resistance to the city's attempt to limit church feeding of the homeless.

Kinney said Dr. Taylor, though passionate about his faith and social justice, never shrank to the level of his adversaries. He was "a powerful, persuasive presence with a gentle authenticity."

Dr. Taylor accumulated an extensive résumé of service, presiding over a host of religious organizations. He was chairman of the advisory board of what was then the Richmond Welfare Department, was co-chairman of the Richmond Community Relations Commission and served as a Richmond police chaplain.

A funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fourth Baptist, 2800 P St. in Church Hill, with burial at Dr. Taylor's home church, Mount Carmel Baptist in Doswell.

Survivors include his son, Raymond L. Taylor of Henrico County, a granddaughter, a great-granddaughter and a great-grandson. Dr. Taylor's wife, Dorothy Smith Taylor, died last year.

The Robert L. Taylor Childcare Center, operated by Friends Association for Children, opened near his old church in 2003.

"I sought to be a good shepherd under the influence of our savior and lord, Jesus Christ," Dr. Taylor said at its opening. "This comes to me as one of the greatest prizes of my life."