Scope and Content Note
The papers of William L. Taylor (1931- ) relate primarily to Taylor’s activities after he established his private law practice in 1986 and focus on his participation in efforts to pass civil rights legislation and to defeat the nominations of Robert H. Bork and Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court. The collection spans the years 1971-1996, with the bulk of the material dating from 1987 to 1992. It is organized in two series: Subject File and Miscellany.
Topics in the Subject File include the Civil Rights acts of 1990 and 1991. The files focus on the efforts of civil rights organizations, members of Congress, and others to draft and pass civil rights legislation countering Supreme Court decisions in the late 1980s which had modified civil rights protections, particularly in the area of employment. Organizations represented in this series include the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Among the files on the defeat of Robert H. Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 are those relating to a letter-writing campaign started by Taylor in which law professors throughout the country wrote to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary opposing the Bork nomination. Also in the Subject File are transcripts of interviews with Taylor conducted by Michael Pertschuk and Wendy Schaetzel during the preparation of their book The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination(1989). Material pertaining to the nomination and confirmation of Clarence Thomas in 1991 includes handwritten drafts of testimony prepared by Taylor for the Congressional Black Caucus.
Included in the Miscellany series are speeches and writings by Taylor on civil rights and education. Among the topics covered are affirmative action and school desegregation.