{{Short description|American journalist, social worker, and educator}} {{Infobox person | name = Rebecca Stiles Taylor | image = RebeccaStilesTaylor1927.png | alt = A Black woman with short hair, wearing a dark beaded top with a scooped neckline | caption = Rebecca Stiles Taylor, from a 1927 newspaper | birth_date = August 1879 | birth_place = [[Savannah, Georgia]], U.S. | death_date = December 1958 <br> (aged 79) | alma_mater = [[Atlanta University]], [[Beach High School|Beach Institute]] | occupation = [[Journalist]], [[teacher]], [[social worker]] }} '''Rebecca Stiles Taylor''' (August 1879 – December 1958) was a journalist, social worker, and educator from [[Savannah, Georgia]]. She was best known for her contributions to the community as the founder of several charitable outlets in the area and as an activist for women's and civil rights.
== Early life == Taylor received a considerable education, graduating from the [[Alfred E. Beach High School|Beach Institute]] and [[Clark Atlanta University|Atlanta University]], and later attending [[Hampton University|Hampton Institute]] and [[Columbia University]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.savannahtribune.com/news/2013-12-25/Front_Page/Rebecca_Stiles_Taylor_To_Be_Inducted_Into_Georgia_.html|title=Rebecca Stiles Taylor To Be Inducted Into Georgia Women of Achievement 2014|date=December 25, 2013|website=savannahtribune.com|access-date=November 3, 2016|archive-date=September 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905150248/http://www.savannahtribune.com/news/2013-12-25/Front_Page/Rebecca_Stiles_Taylor_To_Be_Inducted_Into_Georgia_.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> She started her journalistic work as a columnist for a local Savannah newspaper, where she was not afraid to speak out against the tense racial issues of the era. After many years of segregated schooling, the education she received at Atlanta University, a less racially biased institution of the time, was instrumental in her career and set her on the course for social activism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gpb.org/news/2015/12/08/forgotten-women-part-7-rebecca-stiles-taylor|title=Forgotten Women Part 7: Rebecca Stiles Taylor|date=December 8, 2015|website=gpb.org|access-date=November 3, 2016}}</ref> A cousin of Stiles Taylor described the influence the university had on her:
{{Blockquote|text=They picked up the mission to educate everyone of color. They gave them a mission, almost like a preacher in the pulpit or a missionary on his ship going to a foreign shore. They were to go back. They were to cleanse, protect, and educate the lesser of all the children in their cities and communities.|source=''Forgotten Women Part 7: Rebecca Stiles Taylor'' |author=Hugh Golson }}
== Career == From writer to teacher to social activist, Taylor was a very ambitious and accomplished person. She was a well-known columnist for the ''[[The Chicago Defender|Chicago Defender]]'', and one of very few women journalists for that newspaper, and her writing contributions led her to be nationally recognized. She often wrote on controversial topics such as racial segregation. In those columns about racial interactions and political affairs, she often referenced other accomplished writers like Mrs. Corbett Ashby.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Notable Black American Women|url=https://archive.org/details/notableblackamer00jess_0|url-access=registration|last=Carney Smith|first=Jessie|publisher=Gale Research|year=1992|isbn=9780787664947|location=Detroit|via=zsr.wfu.edu}}</ref> Taylor also wrote a weekly column, "Activities of Women's National Organizations", during the war time in order to kept the readers up to date about women's organizations across the country.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II|last=Mullenbach|first=Cheryl|publisher=Chicago Review Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1569768082|location=Chicago}}</ref> In addition to race relations, Taylor also spoke our for women's issues by writing in support of sound and equal marriages and the elevation of the negro woman.<ref name=":3">{{Cite thesis|url=http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-04092013-223607/unrestricted/01Chresfield.pdf|title=TO IMPROVE THE RACE: EUGENICS AS A STRATEGY FOR RACIAL UPLIFT|last=Chresfield|first=Michell|date=May 16, 2013|website=vanderbilt.edu|publisher=Vanderbilt Library|access-date=November 17, 2016|type=thesis}}</ref> Beyond her writings, Taylor is lauded for her efforts to make positive social change, including education, civil rights, and public health.
In 1917, she founded the Toussaint L'Ouverture Branch of the [[American Red Cross]].<ref name=":0" /> Additionally, Taylor served as national leader of the National Association of Colored Women Mary McLeod Bethune's "chief aide."<ref name=":3" /> Furthermore, she led the Savannah Chapter of the [[National Association of Colored Women's Clubs|National Association of Colored Women's Club]], which provided the means to open a nursing home, a home for girls, and two free health clinics.<ref name=":0" /> She joined [[Mary McLeod Bethune]] to organize the entire Southeastern Region of the club in 1919, assuming the position of corresponding secretary and president of the Association's Georgia State Federation.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Savannah, Georgia|last=Elmore|first=Charles J.|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2002|isbn=9780738514086|location=Georgia|pages=128|via=google.com}}</ref> Taylor was passionate and active about the wellbeing of people in her community, and the nation as a whole. Earlier in her career, Taylor devoted much time to educating people in Savannah with limited opportunities. She achieved great success in these efforts. She was also the first African-American woman to become Savannah's Probation Officer in [[Juvenile court|Juvenile Court]].<ref name=":1" /> Additionally, she wrote a letter to President [[Woodrow Wilson]] in reaction to a lynching.<ref name=":1" /> She cared deeply about reconciling racial divides and took her concerns to people of highest authority in an effort to make a change. Taylor's lifelong career of dedication to the social, mental, and physical betterment of all people has led her into national recognition.
== Legacy == Taylor inspired many with her willingness to take action towards furthering her social causes during a time when it was somewhat taboo to do so. She had a radical vision of social improvement for her time, saying that the South was "on the threshold of a new era," and she dedicated her life towards spurring that on in a vast range of outlets from high school education to club organization.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Slavery and Freedom in Savannah|last=Harris|first=Leslie M.|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-8203-4410-2|pages=211}}</ref> Taylor was an integrationist and advocated an alliance between black women's organizations with other national women's organizations in order eliminate social tension and create a sustainable future.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Cooper|first=Caryl|year=2014|title=Selling Negro Women to Negro Women and to the World Rebecca Stiles Taylor and the Chicago Defender, 1939–1945|journal=Journalism History|volume=39|pages=241–249|id={{ProQuest|1503665526}}|doi=10.1080/00947679.2014.12062921|s2cid=141618281}}</ref> Drawing from her efforts, the Stiles Taylor family remains a prominent figure of charitable works to this day with many of her descendants serving as pastors, teachers, and charity group leaders in the Savannah community.<ref name=":1" /> To commemorate a lifetime of service and activism, Taylor was inducted into the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] in 2014.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
{{Authority control}} {{Georgia Women of Achievement}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Rebecca Stiles}} [[Category:1879 births]] [[Category:1958 deaths]] [[Category:American civil rights activists]] [[Category:African-American women journalists]] [[Category:African-American journalists]] [[Category:American women's page journalists]] [[Category:Clark Atlanta University alumni]] [[Category:Hampton University alumni]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni]] [[Category:20th-century African-American people]] [[Category:20th-century African-American women]] [[Category:American women human rights activists]]