National Cares Mentoring Movement
Susan L. Taylor is synonymous with Essence
magazine, the brand she built—as its fashion and
beauty editor, as editor-in-chief and editorial
director. For 27 years she authored of one of the
magazine’s most popular columns, In the Spirit. For
nearly three decades, as the driving force behind
one of the most celebrated Black-owned businesses
of our time, Susan Taylor is a legend in the
magazine publishing world.
She was the first and only African American Woman
to be recognized by the Magazine Publishers of
America with the Henry Johnson Fisher Award—the
industry's highest honor—and the first to be
inducted into the American Society of Magazine
Editors Hall of Fame. She is the recipient of the
NAACP President's Award for visionary leadership
and has honorary degrees from more than a dozen
colleges and universities.
A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Susan grew up in
Harlem working with her father in his women’s
clothing store. She founded her own cosmetics
company, a first for Black women, which led to the
beauty editor’s position at Essence. She is the
author of four books: In the Spirit: The Inspirational
Writings of Susan L. Taylor; Lessons in Living;
Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has
Shaped Our Lives, which she coauthored with her
husband, Khephra Burns; and her most recent, All
About Love, Favorite Selections from In the Spirit on
Living Fearlessly. She is a much sought-after
speaker, inspiring hope and encouraging us
to reclaim our lives and create sustainable
communities.
She is an avid supporter of a host of organizations
dedicated to moving the Black community forward,
but her passion and focus today is the National
Cares Mentoring Movement, a call to action, which
she founded in 2006 as Essence Cares. The Cares
mentoring movement is a massive campaign to
recruit one million able adults to help secure our
children who are in peril and losing ground. “Not on
our watch!” she says. “Our children are the mothers
and fathers of our tomorrows, and their future is in
our hands.” The goals of the Cares movement are to
increase high school graduation rates among
African American students, end the violence in
Black communities and the over-incarceration of
our young. “Creating safe, top-tier schools in every
underserved community in this nation is the
mandate—and it’s doable,” Taylor says.
Susan is a cofounder of Future PAC, the first
national political action committee devoted to
providing a network of support and sources of
funding for progressive African American
women seeking federal and state-level political
offices. She is co-chair with Danny Glover of Shared
Interest, a capital campaign to raise money to build
housing in the rural areas of South Africa, and
serves on the boards of the Joint Center for Political
and Economic Studies and the National
Underground Railroad Freedom Center. She has
worked passionately to help restore the lives of
people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region
who were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita.