Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. turns 76 this month, and while he may not be as well known as other human rights advocates, he’s done more to bring about equality in his three-quarters of a century (plus one year) than most people could in a lifetime of lifetimes.
Born on March 12, 1932 in New Orleans, Young grew up nominally better off than most African-American children of his generation, graduating from his all-black high school at age 15 and from Howard University with a pre-medical degree in 1951. His parents expected that from there he’d go to medical school and become a dentist like his father.
However, a funny thing got in the way of Mr. Young becoming Dr. Young, DDS: his social conscience. Concerned about the plight of southern blacks less fortunate than himself, Young enrolled at Hartford (CT) Theological Seminary, where for four years he read and studied voraciously. Particularly taken with the writings of Mohandas Gandhi, he vowed to work for change without the use of violence. Upon graduating in 1955 he became an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. His first parishes were located in the southwest Georgia towns of Thomasville and Beachton. Both were tiny, rural, impoverished, and nearly 100% African-American. What he learned there intensified his determination to help bring about meaningful reform.
Young moved to New York in 1957 to do youth work for the National Council of Churches, and while there ran a voter education and registration program that brought him to the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who persuaded him to join the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1961. Young’s unusually effective interpersonal skills led to his being named executive director of the SCLC in 1964, but after his mentor was assassinated in 1968 Young became increasingly convinced that the road to equality would be better paved with political action than continued protests. In 1970 he resigned from the SCLC to seek election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, which was two-thirds white. He lost the election to a conservative incumbent that year, but two years later defeated his Republican opponent to become the first African American elected to Congress from the Deep South since the end of the Civil War.
Once in Washington Young quickly demonstrated the talent for negotiation he had honed while working for the SCLC. While consistently voting for legislation which aided the poor and opposing increased military spending, Young’s willingness to compromise earned him widespread respect. He showed further political acumen in 1976 when he became the first nationally known elected official to endorse a little-known ex-governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, for the presidency. When Carter won election to the White House, he opted to take advantage of Young’s negotiating abilities by appointing him US ambassador to the United Nations.
Young left his job at the UN in 1979, but two years later was elected Mayor of Atlanta, a predominantly African-American city where nearly all the economic power was in the hands of whites. There were many dire predictions prior to his taking office, but during Young’s two four-year terms the city experienced unprecedented economic growth and a significant drop in the crime rate. His negotiation skills were a key to Atlanta’s being awarded the 1996 Olympic Games.
Since leaving elective office Young has served as president of the National Council of Churches, been a professor at Georgia State University, and served on the Boards of Directors of several major corporations. In recent years his focus has changed from fighting racism to battling poverty, which he sees as a more pervasive problem.
Like anyone who has lived 76 years Young has made mistakes, but even his harshest critics cannot question his dedication to meaningful social reform and commitment to human rights.
I don’t like sharing something as personal as my name with just anyone. However, it’s an honor to carry the same moniker as a man who once explained his patience with those who opposed racial equality thusly: “My daddy told me that bigotry is a sickness. You don’t get angry at people who are sick; you just try to find a way to make them well.”
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