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Photo by CHARLES SIMMONS Maureen Taylor leads a line of protestors in front of the Water Board Building. |
A megaphone blared at high noon on the corner of Randolph and East Lafayette Boulevard.
"Water is a human right!" echoed the coarse voice of a black woman.
She wore a long winter coat and loafers in the damp February cold. Barely taking a moment to blink, she orchestrated the picket line. Small white clouds swirled around her as she paced up and down the sidewalk. With spirit and furrowed eyebrows, she encouraged the crowd to raise their voices in protest.
Maureen Taylor, state chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization located in Detroit, remembers hailing those same words when she was on welfare.
More than twenty years ago, Taylor worked as a test driver at the Milan, Mich., proving ground for General Motors Co. In 1977, she was laid off from her second shift at the factory.
A number of months passed before she went by the proving ground again. Taylor had discovered that mechanical robots were driving the experimental cars where she once worked.
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Photo by CHARLES SIMMONS Maureen Taylor leads a line of protestors in front of the Water Board Building. |
After that experience, Taylor said it was evident that she was unemployed.
"By the time the benefits ran out, I couldn’t find another job," Taylor said. "A lot of people went to the Department of Social Services to get assistance, but the people at the welfare office were ugly and irritable. They treated me as if I was an enemy of the state."
Marian Kramer, former chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, came to Taylor’s aid. She helped Taylor fight to keep her utilities going despite her unemployment status.
Taylor’s life ambition would never be the same after meeting Kramer. Three years later, Taylor herself joined the Welfare Rights Organization.
In 1983, Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at Marygrove College, where she graduated first in her class. Ten years later, Taylor became state chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. In 1994, she earned a master’s degree in social work from Wayne State University and was elected treasurer of the National Welfare Rights Union that same year.
Today, people can hear Taylor marching in picket lines held in downtown Detroit for causes such as heat and water utilities.
"I believe that anybody that prevents water from tens of thousands of people is in direct violation of human rights," Taylor said. "It’s a violation and crime against humanity."
Taylor said that the people who contact Welfare Rights remind her of herself not that long ago. They are unemployed mothers, grandmothers, disabled people, senior citizens, and factory workers.
"They need some assistance: They’ve lost their jobs, they’ve been laid off, separated from their significant other, and their source of income has been challenged. Because their source of income has been challenged, they need some kind of assistance to maneuver the rules and regulations applied by the social-services organization."
Every time the phone rings, Taylor said she can help change someone’s life. She loves helping others through scarce times, just as others did for her years ago.
"There are certain rights that are inalienable," Taylor said. "A person has the right to air and the right to breathe. Water is a right. If you don’t have water, you will perish. All of us are coming for the same reason — for help. People need to come to this union of activists to get somebody to represent them in some kind of dispute."
Taylor remains a busy welfare- rights activist in her personal and professional life. In addition to her work at Welfare Rights, she is program director for the Detroit Neighborhood and Family Initiative and the Community Self-Sufficiency Center. The CSSC is a program that matches low-income, unemployed people with training and employment opportunities from Detroit’s Federal Empowerment Zone.
Taylor also continues to serve as trustee to New Detroit Inc. and is a member of various community organizations.
She has received awards for her leadership and involvement in the community, including the National Community Leader Award from the National Black Caucus in Washington, D.C.
Taylor gives back to the community because she said she is indebted to her surroundings.
"I am an indigenous servant of this city even though I have lived in other places while I attended school," Taylor said. "My existence has always been urban. I like all-night shopping, all-night gas stations, theatre, live music – including opera – and roller-skating."
Taylor was born and raised on the lower eastside in the Black Bottom – an area that was known for its black, nutrient-rich dirt. She currently lives with her son on the westside of Detroit.
Never losing sight of her roots, Taylor said she values the experience of growing up in a multi-cultural environment. She was educated through the Detroit Public School System, attending St. Mary’s in downtown Detroit and St. Elizabeth’s High School, situated in a mostly Polish and Italian community.
"My friends coming up were black, Italian and Poles," Taylor said. "We lived together, we walked together, we partied together and we stayed friends."