As we celebrate women in history, we honor Susan L. Taylor!
I was 6-years-old when Essence Magazine debuted in 1970. Just a few years later, when I was around 10, I was fully immersed in this magazine that opened up a world of beauty to me as I viewed Black women…beautiful Black women in all of their glory, from the lightest light to the blackest black skin tones, smooth and glowing and accentuated with eye shadows and lipsticks in an abundance of colors. Big hair afros and perfect coifs adorned pages with a visual message that Black women are among the most sensual and refined queens ever to grace the earth.
At 10-years-old I didn’t realize the impact that the images alone would have in my development as a Black woman. And as I progressed in years, the affirming message offered by writers and poets and particularly by Susan L. Taylor when she began serving as editor-in-chief in 1981, centered me and instilled in me the belief that my existence and my voice had significance and was worthy of attention. Essence Magazine was the right resource at the most opportune time. And Susan was our voice of affirmation and our guiding light. She became the face of Essence and catapulted the Magazine to a powerful media brand. Susan literally changed the trajectory of Black women and little Black girls everywhere with her dialogue about who we are and our personal expectations; and she lifted us up to claim and celebrate our beauty, seize opportunities to believe in ourselves and our abilities, and to live in our purpose!
For 20 years she served as editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine, publications director for Essence Magazine for 6 years and currently, founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement, which she originally launched as Essence CARES in 2006, after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Susan’s work is empowering and influences us to be better and do better in our lives and in our communities. What she envisioned for Essence, Black women and girls, and accomplished through her role at the Magazine wasn’t easy. She grew the Essence brand with her featured column, In The Spirit, where she encouraged self-love and empowerment. She subsequently published 3 volumes of selected columns, including In The Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor in 1993, Lessons In Living, 1995 and All About Love: Favorite Selections from “In The Spirit” on Living Fearlessly, 2008. However, Susan was a divorced, single mom, with her own young company, Nequai Cosmetics when she began working for Essence as a fashion and beauty editor in 1970. She struggled– but only for a time. Even without a college degree Susan’s prowess as a journalist, orator and communicator earned her the synonymy of character and reputation as a woman of grace, influence and power.
Yet, with all of her wisdom, resilience and superwoman abilities, Susan reminds us that she is still human. In a 2020 on-line interview with blackdoctor.org Susan reveals her struggles with early childhood depression that became even more debilitating in her adult life, even while conducting her extraordinary work at Essence Magazine. “I’m out there speaking in front of thousands of people with a smile pasted on my face but dying on the inside,” said Susan in the interview. She adds that she was “spiraling downward and further into a depression that I couldn’t pull myself out of.”
In an era where mental health vigorously competes with the anxieties of life, we must learn as a culture to take time for self-care. “My sadness and depression came out of giving myself to my career before I would give myself to myself,” Susan confessed. “Everything for Essence; nothing for me.” Susan sought help as we all should when sadness and depression can’t be resolved on our own.
We need to allay the stigma and allow ourselves the right to heal. Mental dis-ease will indeed cause physical disease. Following Susan’s example, let’s do better!
During the 1980s Susan enrolled in Fordham University’s evening program and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. She was elected vice president of Essence Communications in 1986 and senior vice president in 1993. She produced and hosted Essence, the Television Program, a syndicated program which was broadcast on more than 50 stations for 4 years, and she began Essence Books in the 1990s. And that’s just an introduction to her success. Lest we forget that she received one of the industry’s highest honors in 1998 as the first Black woman to receive the Henry Johnson Fisher Award from the Magazines Publishers of America.
Susan is the recipient of numerous accolades and awards. But it is her work as founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement of which she is most passionate. Susan insists, “we must give our children in peril a chance to develop the extraordinary in themselves.” The CARES Mentoring Movement recruits, trains and places caring, culturally competent mentors in schools and youth-support organizations desperate for Black volunteers, indicates the website.
Through all of the extraordinary work that Susan has accomplished, the ups and downs, the ebb and flow…she found love. In the late summer of 1989 she married writer and producer, Kephra Burns at their home in upstate New York. In 1997 they co-authored Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives.
It’s not the many awards and rewards in Susan’s life that impresses me the most. It’s her kind, empathic spirit that blows me away every time. When Susan would visit Atlanta more than 20 years ago, she would always engage me. My requests for an interview or a meeting to garner her opinion were always unannounced and unexpected. I was a young journalist, not yet refined. But Susan would always find the time to share with me. Always. One early Wednesday morning a few weeks ago, I called Susan on her personal number. Admittedly, I didn’t realize that it was her personal number. But still, I was unannounced and unexpected. Susan, however, didn’t dismiss me or rush me or make me feel small and insignificant. She was gracious, patient and even engaging although it was clear that she was busy. Susan lives the truth she preaches - that building positive relationships are essential to success and happiness. She is indeed a history-maker…A One-Woman Revolution! Susan L. Taylor is always present and available through her timeless published work. Her uplifting message still guides us and provokes us to think. She will always be – what she has always been…RELEVANT.
For more information on the National CARES Mentoring Movement click the link below https://www.caresmentoring.org/index.php/leadership
Image Credits
Photo Credit Image 1: Regina Fleming
Photo Credit Image 2: Essence Magazine
Photo Credit Image 3: Broadwayworld.com