Who is Paulette Taylor?
Paulette Taylor, who has been a crucial player in many events that have linked Georgetown and Southwestern, now plays a major role in centering the African-American experience in the collective memory of Georgetown
Paulette Hikerson Taylor has been a member of the Georgetown community for nearly 78 years. She was delivered on August 8th, 1948 by Dr. James Dickey, then the only Black physician in Williamson County, who had an office in Taylor. Dr. Dickey delivered many babies whose mothers could not go to White doctors or hospitals due to segregation and helped deal with problems like typhoid and fever.
Paulette Taylor grew up in the Ridge neighborhood of the town, where she attended the Marshall-Carver School. Within this school, which she and other alums call simply “Carver,” she remembers having fun and walking to and from school with her neighbor and best friend.
In 1946, a music professor at Southwestern named Iola Bowden Chambers and her piano students created a program that would teach African-American students at Carver how to play instruments. The Negro Fine Arts School, as it was called, brought students from Carver to the First Methodist Church of Georgetown to learn and play piano from Southwestern students. Please see the Placing Memory entry about the School for more information.
Amongst the students taught to learn and play instruments was Paulette Taylor. She recalled having her first piano lesson at the School in 1953, where she says at the age of 5 she learned to play “Wake Up Baby Bear.” Ms. Taylor received lessons from the Negro Fine Arts School for the next five to six years of her life, and the Negro Fine Arts School still is something Ms. Taylor shows lots of appreciation for whenever talking about her experiences at Carver.
Although appreciative of her time at Carver, Paulette Taylor took notice of the drawbacks the school exhibited when compared to the all-White GISD. Carver only had six classrooms, which occupied 2 grades at a time. Not only was there a limited space for students, but the girls’ restroom had no heater. To get to the boys restroom, one had to walk outside the school building, go around the school, and then enter again to get there. In addition to that, the cafeteria was an old Army barracks. The school also had one fountain, and Ms. Taylor remembers that it did not produce cold water.
One inadequacy that affected her the most was the fact that the school only had one typewriter, which was located in the principal’s office. Ms. Taylor was interested in an extended curriculum that would have allowed her to learn typing. Although she wasn’t sure if she would attend college, she wanted to work in an office, and to get a secretary position, she knew she needed to have typing skills. Unfortunately, Carver did not have such a curriculum to support students who wanted to do anything other than general business skills.
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Around this time was when some African-American parents started actively working towards integration. Even though Paulette Taylor was too young to lead anything related to integration herself, she was amongst the 29 students Harvey Miller had taken to GISD to demand integration. She also informed me that her name was added to the lawsuit Harvey Miller had filed against the GISD School Board. Due to their efforts, Georgetown was eventually integrated in 1966, but Ms. Taylor did not benefit from that personally, as she graduated from Carver in 1964.
Paulette Taylor wanted to attend the University of Texas at Austin to study Business, but due to the slow pace of integration there, and a lack of scholarships to make it accessible to her even if she had been accepted, she could not go there. Instead, she attended Prairie View A&M University with the help of her aunts and uncles who believed in educating the youth. They provided her with money for transportation and necessities for college. Looking back on it today, she recognizes the “village” that helped her make the decision and transition into college to further her education.
Paulette Taylor majored in Business Education, but because she still had a strong interest in typing, she decided to take a typing class. While the students in her typing class fluidly clicked on their keyboards, Ms. Taylor was rather moderate in her typing skills. Realizing that, she spent hours learning how to perfect her typing skills, which eventually earned her a position as a TA for that class.
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While in college, Pauletter Taylor worked with the mayor of Georgetown during the summer to start up a local chapter of a new government program called Head Start. Head Start was a program for underprivileged families who wanted to introduce their children to some form of education before enrollment in public school. She went around town informing and surveying people of their interest in the program.
In 1968, Ms. Taylor graduated with her bachelor's degree in Business Education, and wanted to become a teacher. As she looked for teaching jobs, she came back to Georgetown and married her high school sweetheart, Melvin Taylor. After her marriage, she continued her job with Head Start, but eventually was later able to acquire a job as a teacher in Georgetown ISD.
Paulette Taylor would come to teach at Carver Elementary school for 31 years, where she had the honor of winning teacher of the year. She also went to University of Texas at Austin to receive a teaching certificate to educate children with disabilities, and received her master’s degree at St. Edward's University. Along the way, she had two children.
From her young age till now, Paulette Taylor has always been involved in the community. From playing hymns at the church to teaching within the community to playing music occasionally for people at retirement homes, Paulette Taylor has shown her love for community service. To her, that is her way of keeping busy because it keeps her going.
Coming full circle, Paulette Taylor has now taken over the work of her aunt at the Shotgun House Museum, which is devoted to remembering the history of African Americans within the Georgetown community. With the help of anyone willing to donate artifacts, she has added layers of history that have been forgotten to the house to commemorate Black history. Paulette Taylor says that for as long as her mind is active, she plans on teaching the history of Georgetown to anyone willing to learn.
