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Article by Dr. Clara Small, Professor Emerita, Salisbury University  Edward Theodore Taylor National Museum of African American History & Culture Gift of Edward Theodore Taylor Edward Theodore Taylor was born February 27, 1932 to Victoria Bailey Taylor and Edward Jerome Taylor in Wetipquin, Maryland, in Wicomico County. Edward, called “Little Brother,” in the Wetipquin Community, was the first male child born to the couple after four girls and later two more boys were added to the family. The small, rural Wetipquin community consisted of less than 500 citizens and Edward credited his family and the members of the community for the development of his character. He stated that his character development was a result of the following factors: (1) the older members of the community served as mentors who had no problem correcting youngsters; (2) that most of the residents were related, so they assumed guardianship roles when it was warranted; (3) that every Sunday morning nearly all of the citizens in the community showed up for church services, including the community drunk; (4) that the church served as a source of social camaraderie; and (5) that the two-room Wetipquin Rosenwald School was the heart of the community and school attendance was mandatory, rain, sleet or snow.  Wetipquin School 1920/29 Fisk University Growing up in a large family of seven children, work in the fields was typical in Wicomico County, especially for African American families. Ed-ward entered into the workforce in Wetipquin at the age of five by picking strawberries. He worked on the family farm that consisted of 14 acres of cleared land which was used primarily for raising crops, such as corn for horses, cattle, pigs, and chickens. Other portions of the land were used for gardens that provided for vegetables that were consumed by the family and shared with other families. Edward and his family also worked the large tracks of land of their white neighbors. The canning of fruits and vegetables were also typical for the family as it provided bounty throughout the winter and spring. Edward’s family also participated in the fall ritual of “hog killing,” which was a shared social event for the community which provided salted meat, hams, sausage meat and other sources of succulents, for the winter and spring. The nearby rivers, marshes and streams provided seafood in abundance, because cat-fish, perch and rockfish were available during the winter and summer and fish was salted in large wooden barrels. Oysters were also in abundance and were also sold as a means of making a living. Therefore, there was plenty and Edward stated that “he never saw a hungry day growing up in the Wetipquin Neck, because there was always food available." However, life in Wetipquin was not idyllic, as racism and discrimination existed in very close proximity to the close-kit neighborhood. The Wetipquin community was 99 percent black, but Sandy Hill Beach existed less than a half mile from Ed’s house. The beach was segregated and blacks could not enter into that facility during the summer months until “Colored People’s Day,” which was October 31, the day after the beach closed for the season.  Sandy Hill Camp, Quantico Photograph by Orlando Wootten Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture When it was time for Ed to attend school, he attended Wetipquin’s Elementary two-room school, and he and his siblings walked there on a daily basis; unless they had to labor in the fields. He attended high school at Salisbury High School, in Salisbury, Maryland and graduated in 1948. His graduation was from the eleventh grade because the twelfth grade did not exist for black children in Wicomico County. The twelfth grade did not exist until 1950. Ed was a very good student and desired to become an architectural engineer, designing structures, such as buildings, toys and bridges.” For years, as he grew up, he had made toy vehicles using basket bottoms for wheels that had been declared so sturdy that they had been mistaken as having been commercially manufactured items. Unfortunately, his guidance counselor informed him that most colleges would not accept him in his degree of specialization and that there were no scholarships or financial aid for “colored students.” Still, he sought to achieve his goal. He made the decision to attend Bowie State Teachers College, to obtain a teaching degree, find a job and work for five to ten years and then enter some higher institution of learning and fulfill his lifetime ambition. Unfortunately, he was informed by his mother that he could not attend college due to his father’s poor health, coupled with the financial burden of two sisters already in college. At the age of 16, Ed’s mother suggested that he work for two years and by then, they hoped their situation would have improved, when his sisters had completed their college educations. As such, at the age of 16, Edward became the man of the house because his father was unable to work and provide for the family. Ed found employment as a lumber jack at the Elliott Saw Mill which was located in the deep woods near Mardela Springs, where he made $1an hour as opposed to working for farmers in the area. He worked for the lumber company for two years and on his eighteenth birthday was elevated to the position as a lumber spotter, the first ever black lumber (tree) spotter on the job. The role of the lumber spotter was to locate and label the trees to be cut. He was elated to have the title, but he was disappointed when he found that he was still paid less than his white counterparts. After nearly three years on the job and the death of a fellow lumber spotter by a swarm of bees, Ed quit his job and worked as a basket maker. Into just over a year on the new job, Ed felt that he was ready to attend college. However, his world changed when he was drafted into the United States Army on December 1, 1951 and was ordered to report to the United States Army base in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 21, 1951. Upon having received his orders to report for duty, Ed attempted to obtain a deferment because both of his parents were ill, that he was the head of the household, and that he was a mere 19 years old. He did not receive the deferment he desired because war had begun in Korea. Ed soon found that in the military he made twice the amount of money he had made as a basket maker. He was tested and sworn into the Army on December 29, 1951 and was assigned to go to Fort Meade, Maryland, to Camp Stoneman in California, and then to Scholfield Barracks, Hawaii. During the testing process, Ed made excellent scores on the intelligence test and it was suggested by this officers that he take the Officer’s Test and become a second lieutenant, and he would have been sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, and became an officer. Due to the racial climate in Georgia, of which Ed was acutely aware, he chose to go to Korea instead. After eight weeks of extended training of exclusive Ranger Training in the Special Forces Program in Hawaii, Ed Taylor was sent to Korea as a Combat Infantry Ranger. Korea was worse than he could have ever imagined as he saw 249 members of his squad were either killed or wounded and only six survived. Ed was one of the six survivors, for which he received a Bronze Star.2 He also lost a classmate and a young Korean houseboy who had become so close to the squad that they had decided to possibly bring him to the United States. Once his tour of duty was over in Korea, he was shipped back to Camp Stoneman in California. By then, the military was integrated, or in the process of becoming integrated, according to President Truman’s man-date. However, as Ed walked around Camp Stoneman, he observed that a group of black recruits were picking up trash. When he asked them for what they were being punished, they replied that they were not being punished. They stated that they “were going to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii the next week for basic training and were put on clean-up duty.” However, as he continued to walk around the camp he saw five or six more groups picking up trash. They were all black. He immediately issued a complaint and stated that he would report the issue to Washington the next week when he arrived in Washington for his next assignment. His attempt to issue a com-plaint led to a confrontation with a captain. After a long conference with a Colonel, Ed asked to be sent immediately to his next assignment. His request was honored and the next day he was sent to Washington.  Camp Stoneman, California Pittsburg Historical Museum Ed’s assignment was at a guided missile base seven miles from the Washington Capitol Building. The missile site was located on Calvert Road, one mile east of the University of Maryland campus. His job was to form a protective perimeter around the nation’s capital. Ed was assigned to serve with four other non-commissioned officers and supervise and train 100 troops fresh form basic training. Ed’s specific job was to teach guerilla warfare and aircraft recognition in the morning and report to Fort Meade every evening to participate in special services as well as for him to train and participate in boxing for the 8th Army Boxing Team. Even though President Truman had issued the order to integrate the military forces it did not mean that it had led to greater opportunities for back people nationwide. As a result, similar to black civilians, Ed encountered numerous incidents in Maryland, including: ordering a Coke, but could not drink it in the establishment; visiting a drive-in theater to see a movie, but was not allowed to enter; going to a theater but had to sit in the crows nest or balcony; asking for a light for a cigarette and almost got into a fist fight; and other incidents, in or out of uniform. However, on his journey home to Wetipquin, after his tour of duty was over in 1953, he was faced with the worse form of discrimination because discrimination had not been eradicated in American society. He was a proud veteran of the Korean War. He was clad in his uniform and with his duffel bag, but was denied a front seat on a Trailway bus headed home from Baltimore. Disappointed in the manner in which he was treated, he took off his medals and threw them overboard into the Chesapeake Bay and stated “This is not my country.” That form of discriminatory treatment was devastating to him, and he considered it to have been totally unjustified. That miscarriage of justice occurred approximately two years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Edward Taylor shares his story about the return from Baltimore after his service in this oral history interview. By mid-December of 1953, Ed Taylor decided not to remain in the Army, because he surmised that he “could never again fight for a country that steadfastly refused to give him the rights that he had fought and killed to attain.” Initially, he did not consider a career working with children, but he rationalized that he could better serve the nation by shaping the minds of young people and teaching them that tolerance, love, and understanding are the only salvation for this planet. As a result, he went to Bowie State College, now Bowie State University, and inquired about enrolling there in January of 1954. As soon as his tour of duty ended he enrolled in Bowie State College (BSC), in January of 1954. By 1954, the G.I. Bill was in force to pay the tuition of all qualifying veterans, and by the time he reached the campus, he had been elevated to the rank of Sergeant. His time spent at Bowie included national event, such as, the United States Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas decision, the Little Rock Nine incident, and other civil rights events the also involved Governors Orville Faubus, George Wallace and Lester Maddox of Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia, at-tempts to prevent the desegregation of schools. While attending Bowie State, Ed Taylor in his senior year, served as President of the Student Body. He was a good student and he graduated from Bowie State in 1959. Graduation for Ed Taylor meant taking the next step of searching for gainful employment for his new family because prior to graduation he had married his college sweetheart. His first foray to find employment was with the Metro Police Department in Washington, D.C. He scored 100 points on his qualifying exam, but according to Ed, they did not want an intelligent black police man on their force. Therefore, they found numerous excuses to exclude him from employment, including tonsillitis, fraudulent parking tickets, not being in excellent physical condition, and any other flimsy excuse imaginable which kept him from being eligible for employment. Disappointed and defeated in his quest to work for the Metro Police Department, Ed Taylor and his wife returned to the Eastern Shore of Maryland where he found gainful employment at the Ross Street Elementary School in Snow Hill, Maryland with the Worcester County Board of Education. Ross Street had formerly been the Worcester High School for colored students. While teaching at Ross Street, Ed took steps to continue his education in an effort to better help his students. In 1961, Ed Taylor enrolled in Salisbury State College, now Salisbury University, summer program to pursue graduate degrees and by 1970 he had become the school’s first guidance counselor, and received a Master’s equivalency in education from Salisbury State University. In 1973,he also obtained employment closer to Salisbury and became Vice-Principal at Mardela Middle and Senior High School. In 1978, he received a Master’s Degree in Administration and Supervision from Salisbury State University. From 1988 to 1994, he became a part of the Pupil Personnel Team at the Wicomico County Board of Education. By 1994, at the age of 4, he and his wife, Doretha, jointly retired from the public school system, and he purchased a boat with the goal of running a charter boat service. His retirement ended 35 years in the county public school system.  Mardela High School c. 1970s Walter C. Thurston Jr. Collection (2016.096) Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture Within the last two weeks of retirement, Ed Taylor was visited by Rudolph “Rudy” Cane, who asked him to take his place on the Wicomico County Council, because Cane was going to campaign for a delegate seat in Annapolis. Taylor reluctantly accepted Cane’s challenge and entered the foray of politics. Ed Taylor served three-four year terms as Councilman and he won his first election by 73 percent of the votes. Also, while in that role, he served as the County Council liaison to Wor-Wic Community College.
Ed Taylor accomplished many things during his twelve years as a Wicomico County Councilman. Some of those accomplishments included:
During his tenure as a Wicomico County Councilman, where “he served as the lone Black for eight years,” Ed Taylor aspired to improve the lives of all citizens in the county. He also desired to improve the lot of African Americans who felt that they had been left out of the political process. In 1995, Ed Taylor was invited to attend the “Million Man’s March on Washington, D.C.” The goal was to stimulate an awareness of the plight of black men in America. Upon his return from the Million Man’s March in 1966, Ed Taylor formed and organization called “100 Good Men,” and became its first President. The organization was a volunteer group of men and women that provided mentors, tutors, and after-school computer and activity programs, and role models to troubled youths in Wicomico County. The after-school programs included home-work assistance, mentoring, games, life skills training, and cultural enrichment. The goal was to keep at fifty children off the streets, four evenings per week. The group transported troubled youth to medium security penitentiaries in conjunction with Juvenile Services and the courts in an effort to scare them straight. Unfortunately, in some instances, some of the youngsters perceive those trips as a means to see their friends and relatives, so the emphasis was changed. The new emphasis was to take them to college campuses, in order to inspire them to choose better options and to obtain a college degree. Those trips included visits to African American artist Patrick Henry’s Art Gallery in Berlin, and other positive venues. In short, Ed Taylor and the group met many successes as well as a few failures, but his and their efforts cannot be disputed. Another purpose of the “100 Good Men” organization was to reduce drug usage and crime. By 1997, a summit was planned to improve the con-ditions associated with crime and drug usage. The summit was known as “America’s Promise” and was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to the high crime rate in Wicomico County, Ed Taylor and ten other community leaders were invited to attend the summit. Some of the guests at the summit included former United States Presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush, William “Bill” Clinton, Gerald Ford, and dignitaries, Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, and a host of others. From that summit, “Salisbury’s Promise” was formed. Collectively, “100 Good Men” and “Salisbury’s Promise” sought to improve the lives of all citizens of Wicomico County and to encourage the youth of the community to choose better options in or-der to fulfill their lives. On November 9, 2001, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore honored Councilman Edward T. Taylor with the Frank H. Morris Humanitarian Award for his lifelong contributions to children and community enrichment. In 2002, the American Lung Association of Maryland chose Ed Taylor to receive its Distinguished Public Service Award. Taylor was nominated for the honor by the local ALA chapter. The award is presented to a public official at any level of government who has helped pro-mote measures that further the public policy aims of the Association. Ed Taylor received the award because he had sponsored a bill to prevent youth access to the products in stores. On September 22, 2016, the 700-foot newly built in 2009, Wetipquin Bridge was formerly named for Ed Taylor. He had kept his eye on that bridge and on the water beneath it since his youth. Phil Tilghman, one of Taylor’s fellow County Councilman, called designating the bridge “a nice tribute to one of Wicomico County’s finest public servants.” A road in Wicomico County also bears his name, and for his many contributions to the community, he is listed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2017. By 2006, Ed Taylor decided not to seek reelection to the Wicomico County Council. The person who chose to run for his seat on the Council was Sheree Sample-Hughes, who won the primary election by 73 percent of the votes. Her goal was to continue Taylor’s legacy of improving the lives of the citizens of Wicomico County. Once he announced his decision to not seek re-election, he became the recipient of numerous well-earned awards and recognitions. Some of Ed Taylor’s affiliations with community organizations includes the following:
Ed Taylor’s contributions have been recognized in many areas be-cause he has served on many boards and commissions, including:
For his many years of dedicated service to the community, Mr. Taylor received numerous plaques and awards which adorned his family room walls. The following are just some, of the many, plaques and awards he received that are indicative of his vast contributions to Wicomico County. The American Legion presented him with a Bronze Star because he was a United States Army Korean War era Veteran. The Bronze Star was in recognition of his dedicated service to the nation. On May 28, 1995, at their 54th Organization Day Parade, Queen City Lodge No. 1051, presented him with an a-ward in recognition of his dedication and service to the community and the lodge. In 1994, the Association of Public School Administrators and Supervisors (APSAS) of Wicomico County presented Mr. Taylor a plaque in appreciation of twenty-one years of dedicated service. On October 21, 1997, the Community Policing Consortium acknowledged Councilman Ed Taylor of Wicomico County for his attendance at the 2-day Organizational Trans-formation Conference. Additionally, in 1999, the Wicomico County Department of Corrections and Training and Management Addition gave him the key to the Detention Center. In 2001, the Tri-County Organization Coalition, Inc., of Wi-comico County presented him a plaque in recognition of his humanitarian service to the community. Also in 2001, the Sunrise Jaycees presented him a plaque as an Outstanding Community Leader in recognition of dedicated service and contributions to the community. On March 27, 2010, the Spirit of Democracy American Legion Post #145, Department of Maryland, presented to him, The American Legion Certificate of Appreciation. The certificate was in recognition of sincere appreciation of outstanding service and assistance which contributed to the advancement of The American Legion programs and activities dedicated to God and country. On August 19, 2012, the Salisbury Advisory Council on Youth Activities presented to him an Award of Appreciation. The award was given in appreciation of his many years of dedication and contributions to the youth and citizens of the Salisbury community. In each instance, those plaques and awards were given out of respect and gratitude for his work in the community. Edward Theodore Taylor lived a life of service to his family and to his community as an educator, “as a vocal advocate for education across the county,” as a public servant, and an author. He wore many hats in his career and each one had been worn for the betterment of his beloved com-munity. Edward T. Taylor was a true servant of the public. Sadly, Mr. Edward Theodore Taylor passed into eternal rest on May 30, 2020, at the age of 88. His going home service was held at Holloway Funeral Home in Salisbury, Maryland, on June 6, 2020, and his remains were interred at Friendship United Methodist Church in Wetipquin, Maryland, where he had been a lifelong member. Since, he was such an advocate for education and the youth of the county, the family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Lower Shore Bowie Alumni Scholarship in his honor. Mr. Edward Theodore Taylor left a legacy to Wicomico County. One of his many contributions to the County included his efforts as a member of the County Council to modernize the old wooden Wetipquin Bridge that dated back to the 1960s, which had deteriorated and presented a hazard to local residents and visitors to the area. He spearheaded the effort to modernize the bridge and adopted its replacement as a project that benefited the entire community. As a result, the Wicomico County Council mounted a plaque on the bridge which “reflected the essential role Ed Taylor had in its reconstruction.” Edward T. Taylor and his many contributions to Wicomico County, Maryland will not be forgotten.
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