Quintard Taylor, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington, Seattle is originally from Brownsville, Tennessee. He received his B.A. from St. Augustines College in Raleigh, North Carolina, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Allen Issacman, Lansine Kaba, Allen Spear and Stuart Schwartz.

Taylor has more than forty years of teaching experience in African American history and specifically African Americans in the American West. His previous positions have included Washington State University, California Polytechnic State University, the University of Oregon (where he was chair of the Department of History from 1997 to 1999) and the University of Lagos (Fulbright-Hays Fellowship). He has also authored two books, In Search of The Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990 and The Forging of A Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era.  He has edited two anthologies, Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California and African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000.  In 2008 he published a two volume collection of primary documents titled From Timbuktu to Katrina: Readings in African American History. The following year his book, America-I-Am, Black Facts: The Story of a People Through Timelines, 1601-2000 appeared.  Along with Dr. Samuel Kelly, Taylor co-authored Dr. Sam: The Autobiography of Dr. Samuel Kelly, Soldier, Educator, Advocate and Friend in 2010.  

Taylor has also written over fifty articles on western African American history, 20th Century African American history, African and Afro-Brazilian history. His articles have appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly, Pacific Historical Review, Oregon Historical Quarterly, The Annals of the American Academy orf Political and Social Science, Journal of Negro History, Arizona and the West, Western Journal of Black Studies, the Journal of Ethnic Studies and Polish-American Studies among other