Margaret Taylor was an African American visual artist, poet, children’s writer, educator and community arts organiser best remembered for a life’s work devoted to the dissemination of African American histories and cultures in the United States. Born in Louisiana, she relocated as a child to Chicago, where she would spend the rest of her life. She graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago, earning her BFA in 1944 and her MFA in 1948. Shortly after completing her studies, she began teaching the arts and humanities to underserved communities, in high schools, community colleges and prison facilities. Highly politicised, she joined the Youth division of Chicago’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), participating in anti-lynching campaigns, and writing articles for the Associated Negro Pressand the Chicago Defender.

In 1961, alongside her second husband, poet Charles Gordon Burroughs (1919–1994), M. Taylor Goss Burroughs established a small museum in the home they had purchased. Initially named the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art, in 1968 it was renamed the DuSable Museum of African American History. Now known as the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, it stands as one of the nation’s oldest museums dedicated to the preservation and study of African American art, history and culture. M. Taylor Goss Burroughs’s friends played a key role in its development, alongside members of the Arts Craft Guild – a collective of Black artists from the South Side, which included her first husband, artist Bernard Goss (1913–1966).

Her artistic practice spanned woodcutting, painting, and sculpture, which she often used as tools for education—frequently sharing prints of her work with children. Her art centered on themes of family, community, and the Black experience in the United States, and frequently depicted key historical figures such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Crispus Attucks. She was also deeply embedded in a vibrant artistic network that included notable African American creatives like poet Langston Hughes (1901–1967), sculptor Augusta Savage (1892–1962), and painter Eldzier Cortor (1916–2015).

M. Taylor Goss Burroughs’ contribution to literature includes children’s books and short stories, including Jasper the Drummin’ Boy (1947), Did you feed my Cow? Rhymes and Games from City Streets and Country Lanes (1955) and Whip Me Whop Me Pudding and Other Stories of Riley Rabbit and His Fabulous Friends (1966). She also wrote two poetry collections: What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black? (1968) and Africa, My Africa (1970); and an anthology: Anthology for Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm X (1967).

In 1975, M. Taylor Goss Burroughs received the President’s Humanitarian Award from President Gerald Ford, and in 1980 was appointed to the National Commission on African American History and Culture by President Jimmy Carter. When she passed away in 2010, President Barack Obama expressed his admiration for her contributions to American culture as a respected artist, educator, and mentor. M. Taylor Goss Burroughs’ works are held in prominent museum collections throughout the United States, such as the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.