Person

Frank Douglas Taylor

Graduate of Yale Law School, 1921

Frank Douglas Taylor - "Local Attorney Gets State Post," *Philadelphia Tribune*, 4 February 1937, page 3.

Biography

Frank Douglas Taylor was born in 1895 in Yorkville, South Carolina, to Frank Taylor, a Pullman porter, and Cecelia Shipp Taylor. He graduated from Florida A & M College in 1916 and matriculated to Yale Law School. He was listed as a special student for the 1916-1917 and 1917-1918 academic years.1

Taylor suspended his studies and served in the U.S. Army during the First World War, where he was stationed overseas in 1918 and 1919. He served as a regimental sergeant major with the 808th Pioneer Infantry, a segregated Black regiment.2 Following his enlistment, he returned to Yale Law School and graduated with an L.L.B. degree in 1921. Following his graduation, he practiced law at Lewis & Norris in Philadelphia under J. Austin Norris (Yale Law Class of 1917).3 He left Lewis & Norris and established his own practice in Philadelphia in 1923.4

Taylor was a member of the Elks and active in Republican politics in Pennsylvania.5 He ran to be Philadelphia’s district attorney in Republican primary in 1927 but lost.6 In 1931, he married Nellie Grandy. In 1937, the Republican Attorney General of Pennsylvania appointed Taylor as legal assistant to unemployment compensation work in Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry.7 He was a member of Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia in 1943 and is buried in the Philadelphia National Cemetery.8

  1. Catalogue of Yale University, 1916-1917 (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1917), 874, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnw3yu&seq=884&q1=frank+douglas+taylor. ↩

  2. George Henry Nettleton, Yale in the World War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1925), 124, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Yale_in_the_World_War/VqdGAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Frank+Douglas+Taylor%22&pg=PA547&printsec=frontcover. ↩

  3. “Alumni Notes”, The Yale Alumni Weekly 31, no. 24 (1922), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2533984&seq=622&q1=%22Frank+D.+Taylor%22. ↩

  4. Alumni file of Frank Douglas Taylor, Alumni Records Office, Yale University, Records of Alumni from the Classes of 1701-1978 (RU 830), Yale University Library. ↩

  5. “‘Where Are We Going To Meet Next Year,’ Is Cry Of Elks As Mid-Winter Session Looms,” The Pittsburg Courier, January 1, 1927, https://www.proquest.com/docview/201889436/fulltextPDF/9247563327F44B6APQ/20?accountid=15172&sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers. ↩

  6. “Specimen Republican Ballot,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 18, 1927, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/172897365/?match=1&terms=%22Frank%20D.%20Taylor%22%20%22district%20attorney%22&pqsid=Ytmd7Y_J_lNL2wwAv7Zm5A%3A209572%3A322838372. ↩

  7. “Gets State Post,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 2, 1937, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2877714606/pagelevelImagePDF/4DA43F0B855644AAPQ/6?accountid=15172&sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers. ↩

  8. Obituary Record of Graduates Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1944, no. 103 (New Haven, 1945),339, https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/32233354 ↩

Full Name

Frank Douglas Taylor

Family Name

Taylor

Yale Affiliation

Graduate of Yale Law School, 1921

Birth Date

1893

Birth Place

York, South Carolina, United States

Educated At

Florida A&M University
Yale Law School

Places Lived

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
York, South Carolina, United States

Death Date

1943

Gender

male

Decade(s) at Yale

1910s; 1920s
Media
Frank Douglas Taylor - "Local Attorney Gets State Post," *Philadelphia Tribune*, 4 February 1937, page 3.Frank Douglas Taylor - "Local Attorney Gets State Post," *Philadelphia Tribune*, 4 February 1937, page 3.