Susan Taylor: Following Her Spirit

Deardra Shuler
March 29, 2004

One doesn't think ESSENCE magazine without thinking Susan L. Taylor. For 19 years, Ms. Taylor served as Editor-in-Chief (1981-2000) before moving to her current position as Editorial Director. Without a doubt, Taylor has been the driving force behind ESSENCE and has dedicated the majority of her lifetime to making the magazine what it is today.

Born on 116th Street and Park Avenue, Susan Taylor is the product of four generations of business entrepreneurs. "My great grandmother, Susan Braithwaite, who I am named after, was born in Barbados. She got married in 1884 and as a very young wife and mother, moved to Trinidad where she began a soda business. My grandmother was also an entrepreneur. She had a tailor shop in Harlem and then my family expanded into the liquor business. My father and mother started, what I suspect, was the first black-owned women's boutique in East Harlem in the 1930's. My parents had the boutique until the 1960's. I started off in fashion as a child working in my parent's boutique," recalled Susan.

Taylor began her career after high school as an actress. She followed the business lineage of her family and created her own cosmetic and natural skin-care product company in the 1970s. It was her Nequai line of cosmetics that came to the attention of ESSENCE editors, who recruited Taylor to write about beauty. This led to her becoming the magazine's beauty editor a year later. Shortly afterwards, she became the beauty and fashion editor, ultimately becoming Editor-in-Chief. "As I think of it now, I have been at ESSENCE magazine much of my life. I started at 24 years of age and now I am 58," said the ageless Editorial Director, whose considerable business aplomb has made ESSENCE the largest and most influential magazine for Black women in the world today.

A spiritual person, Taylor has been writing her monthly column, In the Spirit for 23 years. "I write about spirituality because I believe until we come to know our individual power, we are not going to know we have the power to create happiness in our lives and help change the lives of others." Taylor offered that help recently via a mentoring program initiated by Glenda Hatchett on her popular Judge Hatchett Show. The mentoring program was established to offer hope and positive alternatives to troubled youth.

"Mentoring was really an extraordinary experience for me," claimed Taylor. "Recently, I spoke to Dee Miller, the youth who I mentored. She claims she is turning her life around. Dee had given birth at 16, smoked marijuana, and just stopped going to school. I showed her where I grew up. She didn't know who I was when she first met me. I brought her down to ESSENCE and Dee was blown away when she saw the ESSENCE sign. It just so happened the entertainer, Monique, was there that day, along with some Fordham University students. Dee had an opportunity to speak with Monique and to the young students. What Dee saw that day, were the possibilities available to her. She saw she could either remain stuck where she was or turn her life into something positive for herself and her child."

Taylor has many projects on her plate. "I am working with Danny Glover via the Shared Interest Project. The Shared Interest Project, based in New York, raises money to secure loans in South Africa for very poor people who need a couple of thousand dollars to get their businesses launched. It's a commercial enterprise that helps people build houses and businesses. The banks in South Africa won't give loans to poor black South Africans. So, what the Shared Interest Project does is secure those loans. We raise the money in the U.S., and then send the money to the banks in South Africa, who hold the money as collateral. The banks, then in turn, lend money to the poor black South Africans who want to start businesses. I am proud to say, that not one of those people have defaulted on their loan," stated the soft-spoken humanitarian.

A graduate of Fordham University, Taylor has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Spelman and Bennett Colleges, Delaware State and Fisk Universities as well as from the nation's first African American college, Lincoln University.

Executive Producer of the annually televised Essence Awards, Susan serves in the same capacity for the annual Essence Music Festival, held during the Fourth of July holiday each year in New Orleans. As a member of the board of directors, Taylor is involved in the magazines many diversified ventures, including Essence Entertainment, Essence Eyewear and Hosiery and Essence Books. She is herself, the author, of three books: "In the Spirit;" "The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor, Lessons in Living and Confirmation"; and "The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped our Lives," a book she co-authored with her husband, Khephra Burns.

Ms. Taylor is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, The American Society of Magazine Editors and Women in Communication. She is associated with the Commission on Research in Black Education, a Commission that stimulates research and policy to improve education for people of African ancestry. She is the winner of numerous citations and awards. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to be a recipient of the Henry Johnson Fisher Award, the highest award awarded to a publishing professional by the Magazine Publishers of America.

Despite her accomplishments, Taylor feels there is much left to do. "I am grateful for my life but there is so much left to do. I am hardly satisfied," states the wife, mother and grandmother. "In fact, I am very dissatisfied with what we are doing as a nation and as a community. I encourage people to get involved in their community. When we uplift women, we uplift the community. When women don't have what they need to be self-supporting, everything falls apart. There was a time when African Americans stayed together and really raised their families. At the turn of the century around the early 1900s, 90% of black children were born into black households as opposed to a far less number today. I think we have to find that thing in ourselves that we love, so that we can find that degree of happiness that allows us to make a difference in our life and in the lives of others. It's important. I know I won't be satisfied until we all get involved in the uplifting of ourselves, our families and our communities."

Contact: Global Black News