It is with deep sadness that the Reparations Committee shares the news of the passing of Committee member, Rodger Taylor, on Saturday, 25 May. Rodger was a member of St. Augustine’s Church, NYC, and was instrumental in the research and restoration project of the Slave Galleries.

A freelance writer and retired branch librarian with the New York Public Library, Rodger worked on many important works including a newspaper magazine feature titled “Land of the Blacks,” which appeared in New York Newsday, which explored the early African presence in New York shortly after the re-emergence and archaeological study of the African Burial Ground, located in lower Manhattan in the 1990s. In addition, with the late Fred Jerome in 2005, Rodger co-authored Einstein on Race and Racism, which garnered an honorable mention in the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards. The esteemed Michael Eric Dyson was moved to note: “Thanks to Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor, we have unimpeachable evidence that the ‘Man of the Century’ wrestled fearlessly and insightfully with what his friend W.E.B. Du Bois termed the century’s greatest problem: the color line. This is one of the year’s most important books.”

A Memorial Service will be held at St. Augustine’s on Sunday, 30 June, time to be confirmed.

During this time of bereavement, we ask that you please keep Rodger’s family in your thoughts and prayers.

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Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Rodger. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.