Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Ph.D.
(7th Annual William T. Small, Jr. Keynote Lecturer)

Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
School of Architecture and Planning
Director, Center for Urban Studies
University at Buffalo, New York

Education

B.S. (Speech Pathology and Audiology) Tennessee State University
M.A. (Audiology) University of Tennessee
M.A. (Urban History) University at Buffalo
Ph.D. (Urban History) University at Buffalo

Courses

Professor Taylor teaches in the undergraduate and graduate curricula and coordinates the community development and urban management specialization. He teaches PD 404/506: Introduction to Urban Management and PD 508: Race, Class, Gender, and the City. Dr. Taylor is also co-director of the highly acclaimed UB Summer Study Abroad Program, Cuba: Down on the Ground, Comprehending the Socialist City, which has been temporarily suspended due to recent changes in U.S. policy. PD 404/506 is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. This course focuses on the urban and regional building process, the structure and functions of the urban metropolis, and explores how planners can operate effectively in a real world setting dominated by elitist urban regimes. PD 508 is a graduate course that explores the role that race, class, and gender play in shaping the urban environment and determining the life chances of people of color. Within this context, it explores ways that planners can develop urban regions that meet the human needs of people of color.


Research Specialization

Urban and Planning History, Neighborhood Planning and Community Development, Economic and Regional Development, Caribbean Studies with special emphasis on Tourism and Cuban Studies

Professor Taylor’s research agenda focuses on black residential development and city/regional building at particular historical periods as well as over time. He is primarily concerned with the manner in which the city and regional building process in the United States constrains the development of the African American community. Dr. Taylor’s approach to black neighborhood development is regionally based. That is, he seeks to understand the process of black neighborhood development within the broader context of regional development. His research also focuses on neighborhood planning and community development. Here, he is primarily concerned with the study of the internal and external factors that impact neighborhood development and the formulation of neighborhood plans that attack structural racism. Lastly, Professor Taylor has research interests focused on tourism and the community development process in Cuba and the Caribbean, He is most particularly concerned with the social impact of tourism in the Caribbean and in comparative studies of the United States and Cuba.

Community Development and Neighborhood Planning Projects

Professor Taylor believes that the role of an urban/regional planner is to design and build a society where social development is prioritized and where human needs are met. His community development and neighborhood planning projects are designed to test various concepts and theories of community development in a real world setting. As Director of the School of Architecture and Planning Center for Urban Studies, Dr. Taylor uses the resources of the university to attack structural racism and the problems of distress and underdevelopment in neighborhoods in Buffalo and Western New York. He, along with other members of the Center for Urban Studies, engages in a range of community development and neighborhood planning projects for local government and neighborhood groups and organizations. Professor Taylor is currently leading a major community development project in the Fruit Belt and Martin Luther King, Jr. neighborhoods in Buffalo, New York. This project focuses on urban school reform, commercial corridor revitalization, and neighborhood development.

Select Publications

Historical Roots of the Urban Crisis: African Americans in the Industrial City, 1900-1950 (New York: Garland Publishers, August, 2000), edited volume, with Walter Hill.

Race and the City: Work, Community and Protest in Cincinnati, 1820 – 1970 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993) edited volume.

African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo's Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, Volume I (Buffalo: Buffalo Urban League, 1990) edited volume. Winner: William Wells Brown Award for outstanding contributions to the preservation of African American History. Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, Inc., 1991.

Monographs

Governance in Erie County: A Foundation for Understanding and Action (University at Buffalo, January 1996) with Kate Foster, David Perry, Alfred Price and John Sheffer (Winner of the Alpha Award, Amherst Chamber of Commerce, 1996).

Article

Connecting Community Development and Urban School Reform in Lauri Johnson, ed. Urban Education with an Attitude: Linking Theory, Practice, and Community (Albany: SUNY Press, March 2005).

Current book Project

The Secret of Castro’s Staying Power: Race and Cuba’s Neighborhood-Based Development Strategy, 1989 to the Present

Selected technical reports

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., From Theory to Practice: the Quest to Radically Reconstruct Buffalo’s Inner-City Neighborhoods: a Progress Report, March 8, 2004.

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., The Masten District Neighborhood Plan, The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, Buffalo, New York, September 30, 2004.

Robert Silverman, Chris Crawford, Jeffery Kujawa, and Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Main Street Revitalization Plan for the Village of Depew, New York, The Village of Depew, October 30, 2004.

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., David Brody, and David Hahn-Baker, Meeting the 21st Century Housing Challenge: Building a Minimum Housing Standard in Erie County, Erie County Legislature, December 31, 2004.

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., The Fillmore Avenue Commercial Corridor Business Directory, Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, Buffalo, New York, September 5, 2004.

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and David Haln-Baker, The Cleveland Replication Study:
Lessons for the Western New York Region: The Environment and Society Institute, January 2003.

Sam Cole, Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Richard Milgrom, and Samina Raja, Fruit Belt/Niagara Medical Campus Tax Increment Financing District Plan, January 2003: The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.

Henry L. Taylor, Minoo Amini, and Jeff Kujawa, The Martin Luther King Cultural District and Cultural Corridor: A Strategic Plan and Action Agenda for the Masten District.” March, 2001: the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.

Henry Taylor and Sam Cole, "The Turning Point: A Strategic Plan and Action Agenda for the Fruitbelt/Medical Corridor,” A the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, March, 2001.

Henry Taylor, Project Director, "The Health Status of the Near East Side Community and Neighborhood Conditions," Kaleida Health, January 2001.

Selected honors and awards

The Fannie Mae Foundation Award, Best Paper on Practice-Based Learning in Housing or Community Development at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, November 2001.

YMCA Toast to Buffalo Award for Outstanding Community Leadership, 2000.

Founder of TheCyberHood.Net, a community development website sponsored by the Urban Affairs Association.

Links