Andrew jackson young jr. biography
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Andrew Young Jr.
(1932-)
Who Is Andrew Young Jr.?
Andrew Young Jr. became active in the civil rights movement, working with Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Entering politics, Young served in Congress, was the first African American ambassador to the United Nations and became mayor of Atlanta. In 1981, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Early Life
On March 12, 1932, Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. The product of a middle-class family — his father was a dentist, his mother a teacher — he had to travel from his neighborhood to attend segregated schools. After graduating from Howard University, Young chose to study at Connecticut's Hartford Theological Seminary. In 1955, he became an ordained minister.
Civil Rights Leader
Working as a pastor in Georgia, Young first became part of the civil rights movement when he organized voter registration drives. He moved to New York City to work with the N
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YOUNG, Andrew Jackson, Jr.
As a senior aide to Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the 1960s, Andrew ung helped shape the civil rights movement and its philosophy of nonviolent resistance. When he was sworn into Congress in 1973, Young worked to bring King’s vision of human rights to the nation and the world. Young’s experiences in the grass-roots politics of the civil rights movement and his diplomatic perspective allowed him to take principled but pragmatic stands for his constituents. Looking back on his decision to run for the House, Young remembered viewing “political office as a way of sustaining what we had done and needed to do igen rather than as a deviation from our history of collective struggle.”1
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 12, 1932, to Andrew and Daisy Fuller ung. His father was a dentist, and his mother was a schoolteacher. Growing up, Andrew and his younger brother W
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November 7
If there was a Mt. Rushmore for civil rights icons, Andrew Young would be on it. But his achievements go well beyond civil rights: Young has served as congressman, United Nations ambassador and mayor of Atlanta.
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born in New Orleans in 1932. He became involved in the civil rights movement while pastoring a church in Thomasville, Georgia and joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1961. As one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most trusted aides, Young organized voter registration drives and desegregation campaigns throughout the South. ung was with Dr. King when he was assassinated in 1968.
In 1972, Young became the first African-American since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from Georgia. He was re-elected twice before Jimmy Carter appointed him ambassador to the United Nations in 1977.
In the 1980s, he served two terms as mayor of Atlanta, playing a pivotal role in Atlanta’s rise as an international city and was i