Carole Ann Taylor

Entrepreneur Carole Ann Taylor was born on October 10, 1944 in Connellsville, Pennsylvania to Harriette Toni Bell Taylor and Reverend Carl B. Taylor. She received her B.A. degree in sociology from Central State University in 1968 and was certified as a mediator/arbitrator by the Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution and the American Arbitration Association.

In 1968, Taylor was hired as director of community affairs for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s women’s unit, where she worked for Evelyn Cunningham until 1974. In 1971, she became a delegate from Harlem to the first National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana and was named co-chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus. Taylor chaired its first National Political Convention in Houston, Texas, where she worked with Fanny Lou Hammer and Shirley Chisholm and established the Coalition of Black Republicans. She then became director of mediation and arbitration for the Institute of Mediation and Conflict Resolution in 1976, where she worked for Dorothy Height. In 1978, Taylor was hired as a public affairs specialist and loan officer focusing on disaster relief for the U.S. Small Business Administration in Washington, D.C. She then moved to Miami, where she became an assistant to Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré in 1981. She entered the travel retail, culture and duty free business in 1987 when she founded Bayside to Go in Miami’s Bayside Marketplace. Taylor went on to found Miami To Go and open Bayside To Go at Miami International Airport in 1994, Little Havana To Go in 1999, Miami Concepts in 2007, Miami Gifts To Go in 2010, Cultures To Go in 2013, and Destination Concepts in 2014. She retired in 2018. Taylor also is a noted jazz singer who worked with the likes of Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton and is known as Miami’s “first lady of jazz.”

Taylor was a founding member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and the founder of the Little Havana To Go Merchants Association. She has served as multicultural tourism development committee and black hospitality initiative chair for the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and on the boards of the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Black Archives History & Research Foundation, Lyric Theatre, and Miami’s WDNA Jazz Radio station.

Taylor received the City of Miami Business Icon Award, Florida Pioneer Industrialist of the Year Award, World Trade Center International Women’s Day Award, Black Meetings & Tourism Apex Award, International Businesswoman of the Year Award from the Organization of Women in International Trade, Miami Dade County Black Affairs Pillar Award, and the 100 Black Men of South Florida Women of Color Award. The Miami Dade Chamber of Commerce established the annual Carole Ann Taylor Award in her honor. Miami To Go has been named a Top 50 Women Led Business in Florida by the Commonwealth Institute and U.S. Small Business Administration and Department of Commerce Minority Retail Firm of the Year.

Taylor resides in Miami, Florida. She has two sons, Jaesyn Mixon and Jason Walker.

Carole Ann Taylor was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 19, 2022.