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Gang-Peace Activist Darren ‘Bo’ Taylor Dies
LOS
ANGELES – Darren “Bo” Taylor, an activist who brokered
a truce between warring inner-city gangs after the 1992 Los Angeles
riots, has died. He was 42.
Taylor died of cancer last Monday in San Diego, said Adrienne Galloway,
Taylor’s sister, last Wednesday.
Taylor was a member of the Crips street gang as a teenager. He joined
the Navy and was honorably discharged before returning to gang life. He
said he finally turned away from thugging after being repeatedly shot at
while dealing drugs.
Taylor became a gang-peace activist, respected by gangsters for his
street credibility and by officials for his success.
He founded UNITY One after the 1992 riots. The group worked to prevent
gang violence through intervention and education. One program involved
teaching life-management skills to thousands of county-jail inmates.
Five years ago, Taylor worked with gang leaders to help quell a series
of violent jail brawls between black and Hispanic inmates.
“Bo knew how to change lives for the better,” Sheriff Lee Baca
said. “He
did it very well.”
As a peace mediator, Taylor sometimes stood between gang rivals to
keep them from shooting each other.
Gang members are disenfranchised youth, he told National Public Radio
last year.
“They don't really have all the tools to make the right decisions
that (are) necessary in today's society, and they don't fully understand
the system,” he said.
Civil rights attorney Connie Rice said Taylor was an extraordinary
man.
“You don't find many in the gang-intervention world who can be effective
in the street, effective in the courtroom, effective at City Hall
and effective in the prisons,” Rice said. “He could calm everyone
down and make us work together.”
The African American Summit on Violence released the following statement
in response to Taylor’s passing: “Our thoughts and prayers
go out to the immediately family and community peace activist’s family
of Bo Taylor, a true advocate who risked his life for almost two decades
to inspire, educate and promote peace within gang infested communities.
Thousands of lives have been saved because of the relentless pursuit of
peace on behalf of Bo’s UNITY ONE organization. We join the community
at large in mourning his passing. He will be missed greatly.”
Taylor is survived by his wife, Marlene Oglesby-Taylor; mother, Charlene
Taylor of Los Angeles; stepfather Albert Galloway of Dyersburg, Tenn.;
two brothers; three sisters; four children; and one grandchild.
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