William Taylor is a lawyer, teacher, and writer in the fields of civil rights and education. He is currently the Chair of the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights, and practices law in Washington, D.C., specializing in litigation and other forms of advocacy on behalf of low income and minority children. He also teaches education law as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School. Mr Taylor began his legal career in 1954 as an attorney on the staff of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. In the 1960s he served as General Counsel and later as staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights where he directed major investigations and research studies that contributed to the civil rights laws enacted in the 60s. In 1970, Mr. Taylor founded the Center for National Policy review, a civil rights research and advocacy organization funded by private foundations that he directed for 16 years. He has written widely about public law and policy issues for legal and education journals, magazines, and newspapers, and is the author of the book, Hanging Together: Equality in an Urban Nation (1971). Mr. Taylor's memoirs, "The Passion of My Times: An Advocate's Fifty-Year Journey in the Civil Rights Movement" was published in 2004. Among the honors he has received is the first Thurgood Marshall award conferred by the District of Columbia Bar in 1993. He is a graduate of Brooklyn College and the Yale Law School.