Roy A. Taylor

Roy Arthur Taylor (January 31, 1910 – November 28, 1995) was a U.S. representative from North Carolina.

Born in Vader, Washington, Taylor graduated from Asheville-Biltmore College, Asheville, North Carolina, 1929. He graduated from Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee, 1931. J.D., Asheville University Law School, Asheville, North Carolina, 1936. He was a lawyer in private practice. He was in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946. He served as member of the North Carolina House of Representatives during the General Assembly's 1947, 1949, 1951, and 1953 regular sessions.

Taylor was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-sixth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative David M. Hall. He stood for re-election^[1] and was re-elected to eight succeeding Congresses and served from June 25, 1960, to January 3, 1977.

He was not a candidate for re-election to the Ninety-fifth Congress in 1976.

While serving in Congress, Taylor voted in favor of several progressive laws related to matters such as housing,^[2] the federal minimum wage,^[3] poverty alleviation,^[4] and healthcare.^[5]

In 1968, however, Taylor spoke about against the Poor People’s Campaign, arguing that America’s poor “would be better off if this group folded it tents and went home. Progress will be made only through a calm approach to progressive programs, not through the bull-horn demands of militants.”^[6]

In 1986, he received an honorary Doctor of Law from the University of North Carolina at Asheville^[7][8]

He died on November 28, 1995, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and was interred in Mountain View Memorial Gardens in the same town.^[9]