Taylor, Camille & Art

Always ready to lend her voice, Camille Taylor is a long-standing McLean County human rights activist, educator, and advocate for justice. Art Taylor is a college basketball scholar who never played a game and has a steady voice for fairness and thoughtful listening in McLean County.

When Camille was in second grade, the family returned to Chicago and shared an apartment in a two flat building owned by her paternal grandparents. It was at St. Anselm’s Catholic School that Camille met a classmate named Art Taylor, who would later become her life partner.

Lambuth College in Jackson, Tennessee, offered Art a basketball scholarship. After injuring his ankle, Art was unable to play, but the college honored his scholarship. Instead, he became the team’s ”stat man,” publicist, van driver, and all-around assistant—immersing himself in the game he loved in a different way.

As a leader in the Black Student Union and later, elected student body president, Art gained leadership experience as an activist while a student. Art and the college’s small cohort of 35 Black students went to the president’s office to protest a professor using a textbook that promoted the Civil War “Lost Cause” narrative, praising the Confederacy. The textbook was eventually removed from the curriculum, though it remained available in the library.

Determined to become a teacher, Camille enrolled at Illinois State University. After she and Art had stopped dating, she married James Mason at age eighteen.

Returning to ISU in 1975 and living in Cardinal Court, Camille found her voice as an advocate. Her son attended childcare at Turner Hall, and when she was asked to serve on the ISU Child Care Advisory Board, she spoke out against a proposed fee increase that would burden low-income students.

After earning a degree in political science, Art began a career in retail sales, that years later would eventually lead him to State Farm where he would retire after 18 years with the company. As a Senior Business Analyst, State Farm drew on Art’s insight and leadership to help develop- its internal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training program.

Camille graduated from ISU in 1978 with a degree in special education after which she joined Unit 5 School District in Normal where she would remain for 34 years. For the majority of her career, she was a special education teacher, CARES specialist, and positive life-skills teacher. She also spent 12 years of her career as a counselor.

In 1991, as both were going through divorces, Art and Camille reconnected. They married three years later in 1994. Art’s calm principled voice also led to broader community service as part of the City of Bloomington’s Public Safety and Community Review Board. Camille’s civic engagement extends far beyond the classroom. Having served in many different capacities, she is currently on the Board of Directors of the YWCA of McLean County, serves the League of Women Voters, and is co-chair of Not in Our Town/Not in Our School. Art and Camille were honored by the Illinois Community Prairie Foundation in 2020 as Philanthropists of the Year.

A complete biography will be posted after the History Makers Gala.