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- For the Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, see Andrew J. Young (sergeant)
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American civil rights activist, former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia and was the United States' first African American ambassador to the United Nations.
Background
Early life
Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father was a dentist and his mother a school teacher. Andrew was supposed to become a dentist, but the struggle to survive in the South, the experience in segregated and overcrowded public schools, and growing up in an integrated lower class neighborhood, developed a social conscience which led him to the Congregational Christian (now United Church of Christ) ministry upon graduation from Howard University in 1951.
Education
After one year at New Orleans' Dillard University, in 1947 Young went to Howard University in Washington D.C. where he received his Bachelor of Science and pre-med degree in 1951. He had originally planned to follow his father's career of dentistry, but then felt a religious calling. He entered the ministry and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut in 1955.
Civil rights
Andrew Young was appointed to serve as pastor of a church in Marion, Alabama. It was there in Marion that he met Jean Childs, who was to become his wife. Also while in Marion, Young began to study the writings of Mohandas Gandhi. Young became interested in Gandhi's concept of non-violent resistance as a tactic for social change. He encouraged African-Americans to register to vote in Alabama, and sometimes faced death threats while doing so. He became a friend and ally of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at this time.
In 1957, Young moved to New York City to accept a job with the National Council of Churches. However as the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum, Young decided that his place was back in the South. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and again worked on drives to register black voters. In 1960, he joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Young was jailed for his participation in civil rights demonstrations, both in Selma, Alabama, and St. Augustine, Florida. In 1964, Young was named executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), becoming, in that capacity, one of Dr. King's principal lieutenants. He was with King in Memphis, Tennessee when the latter was assassinated in 1968.
Career
Congress
In 1970 Andrew Young ran as a Democrat for Congress from Georgia, but was unsuccessful. In 1972 he ran again, this time becoming Georgia's first African American congressman since Reconstruction. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976.
Diplomatic career
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Young the Ambassador to the UN. His controversial statements made headlines almost from the start. However, President Carter continued to support his ambassador until 1979, when, contrary to US policy and statute, he met with a representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. When the occurrence of that meeting was revealed, Young's public statements were perceived as evasive by Administration critics. Ultimately, Young was forced to resign.
During the 1980 presidential race there was some controversy about a statement made by Young. According to the NY Times, Oct 16, 1980. pg. B.6
"Speaking to a crowd made up almost entirely of whites, Mr. Reagan said: I believe in state's rights. I believe in people doing as much as they can at the private level. The Republican Presidential nominee added that if elected, he would reorder priorities and restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them.
Commenting on the remark at Ohio State, Mr. Young said: If he had gone to Biloxi, Miss., and talked about state's rights, if he had gone to New Orleans, or Birmingham, Ala., I would not have gotten upset. But when you go to Philadelphia, Miss., where James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Michael Schwerner were killed - murdered - by the sheriff and the deputy sheriff and a government posse protecting state's rights, and you go down there and start talking about state's rights, that looks like a code word to me that it's going to be all right to kill niggers when he's President.'"
These remarks were denounced by the Reagan campaign and repudiated by the Carter campaign.
Atlanta mayor
In 1981, Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, succeeding Maynard Jackson. He was re-elected in 1985. As mayor, Young brought the city to national prominence by encouraging international investment, which in turn improved the Atlanta economy after it was hit hard by recession.
Private citizen
Young ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Georgia in 1990, losing in the Democratic primary runoff to future Governor Zell Miller. However, while running for the statehouse, he was simultaneously serving as co-chair of a committee which was at that time attempting to bring the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta. Though his successor, Maynard Jackson, was able to enjoy the spotlight when the announcement came that Atlanta had won the right to host the Summer Games, Young was almost certainly more instrumental in the success of the Atlanta bid.
Today, Young is co-chair of Good Works International, a consulting firm, "offering international market access and political risk analysis in key emerging markets within Africa and the Caribbean." The company's website also notes that "GWI principals have backgrounds in human rights and public service. The concept of enhancing the greater good is intrinsic to our business endeavors." Nike is one of GoodWorks' most visible corporate clients. In the late 1990s, at the height of controversy over the company's labor practices, Young led a delegation to report on Nike operations in Vietnam. Anti-sweatshop activists derided the report as a whitewash and raised concerns that Nike was trading on Young's background as a civil rights activist to improve Nike's corporate image. Young is also a director of the Drum Major Institute.
In 2004, Young briefly considered running for US Senate after the incumbent, Zell Miller, announced his retirement, but decided not to re-enter public life.
In February 2006, Young accepted a position as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, an astroturf organization sponsored by the corporate giant as a public response to widespread criticism that many of the company's American employees and their children are on public assistance, that the company uses child labor, that the company discriminates against female and African-American employees, and that workers manufacturing Wal-Mart products are subject to abusive conditions and sub-poverty wages.
In an interview in 2006, a Los Angeles Sentinel correspondent asked Young whether he worried that Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close. He replied with comments that were criticized as racist:
Following the widespread publication of these comments, Young announced on August 17, 2006, that he had ended his involvement with Working Families for Wal-Mart.
The Benton County Daily Record of August 26, 2006 reports:
Trivia
- Young is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.
- Young is the namesake of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
- International Boulevard, near the Centennial Olympic Park, has been renamed Andrew Young International Boulevard, in honor of his efforts to secure the Olympic bid for Atlanta.
References
External links
de:Andrew Young
fr:Andrew Young
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