He is the oldest of the three children of a Veterans Administration file clerk and a Naval Weapons Plant shipping clerk who also drove a taxicab in D.C. Taylor is 69. His journalism career dates from 1968 and includes reporting for The Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and Bloomberg BNA. He also did copy editing for Bloomberg BNA and the AFRO American Newspapers in Baltimore. Taylor is a guest lecturer in journalism and a student adviser at Morgan State University. He attended Morehouse College. He is married to Pennie Taylor and is a father and grandfather.