Charles Samuel Lafayette Alexander Taylor was born circa 1859 in South Carolina. Before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, Taylor was enslaved in Union County, North Carolina, making shoes for A. A. Laney and Patterson Houston. During the war, the shoe business continued under Confederate government contract. In a cruel twist, the shoes Taylor made, from wood and cloth due to a leather shortage, adorned the feet of soldiers fighting to keep him enslaved. Following the war, Taylor attended Quaker schools and eventually opened his own barber shop on East Trade Street in Charlotte.

Taylor was extremely active in the African American community in Charlotte. He served as captain of the African American volunteer fire company called the Neptune Volunteer Fire Company. From May 4, 1885, to May 2, 1887, he was an alderman representing the third ward of the city of Charlotte. In 1887, Taylor organized an all-African American company of the national guard in Charlotte in 1887, for which unit he served as captain. The company was rolled into the Third North Carolina Regiment of Volunteers during the Spanish American War, and Taylor was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the organization. He died in Charlotte on November 17, 1934.