Andrew Young

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(b. New Orleans, Louisiana, 12 Mar. 1932) US; member of the US House of Representatives 1973 – 7, ambassador to the United Nations 1977 – 9, mayor of Atlanta 1982 – 9 Andrew Yong's political career was forged in the heat of the civil rights movement. Educated at Dillard and Howard Universities and at Hartford Theological Seminary, he became a congregational minister and worked for a time organizing youth work for the National Council of Churches. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1960 and became its executive director 1964 – 70. His close association with Martin Luther King and his own charismatic personality made him one of the key leaders of the black community in the south.

In 1972 Young was elected to Congress, the first black Congressman from Georgia in 100 years. In 1977, his fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter appointed Young as ambassador to the United Nations. In that capacity Young excited controversy because of his support for Third World countries and he was forced to resign in 1979 following publicity given to a series of secret meetings with the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was elected as mayor of Atlanta in 1981 and served the full two terms allowed by the constitution.

Young's political stance was moderate and he was successful at building cross-community coalitions in Atlanta. In Democratic national politics, he translated that approach into support for mainstream liberalism. In 1984 he supported Walter Mondale rather than the more radical black candidate Jesse Jackson for the presidential nomination.

Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (born 1932) was a preacher, civil rights activist, and politician who served as a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as a U.S. congressman, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 12, 1932, the grandson of a prosperous "bayou entrepreneur" and the eldest of two sons comfortably reared by Andrew J. Young, a dentist, and Daisy (Fuller) Young, a teacher. He and his brother grew up as the only African American children in a white, middle-class neighborhood in New Orleans. In 1947 he graduated from Gilbert Academy, a private high school, and entered Dillard University. Intending to become a dentist, he transferred to Howard University the following year.

After graduating with a pre-medical B.S. degree in 1951, however, Young decided on the ministry and enrolled in the Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut. He completed his B.D. degree four years later, and, strongly influenced by his study of the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi, Young resolved to "change this country without violence."

Civil Rights Activist

In 1955 Young was ordained a minister in the socially liberal and predominantly white United Church of Christ. He pastored African American Congregational churches in Marion, Alabama, and the southern Georgia small towns of Thomasville and Beachton, before becoming the associate director of the Department of Youth Work for the National Council of Churches in 1957. As a part of his duties there he administered a voter education and registration project funded by the Field Foundation, and this brought him into contact with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In the summer of 1961 Young joined that organization and rapidly became an able administrative assistant and confidant of King.

Worldly in matters of finance and organizational techniques and conversant in the language of the white establishment as well as the patois of the uneducated rural African Americans, Young excelled as a fund-raiser and strategist and was SCLC's principal negotiator. While others became newsworthy by getting arrested and beaten, Young worked quietly behind the scene to persuade the white power structure of the futility of resistance to the African American civil rights movement. He helped direct the massive campaign against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, and his success at the negotiating table in winning important gains for Birmingham African Americans led to the selection of Young as executive director of SCLC in 1964.

Young marched at King's side in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964; Selma, Alabama, in 1965; Chicago in 1966; and Memphis in 1968 and was at the motel in Memphis when the civil rights leader was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. Young remained with the SCLC as its executive vice-president for two more years, but increasingly articulated the view the movement would have to shift from protest to political action.

Congressman, U.N. Ambassador, and Mayor

In 1970 Young resigned from the SCLC to seek election to the United States House of Representatives from Georgia's nearly two-thirds white Fifth Congressional District in Atlanta. Young lost the congressional race to a conservative white Republican incumbent, but ran strongly enough to pre-empt the Democratic field for a rematch two years later. In 1972, with the Fifth Congressional District having been redistricted by court order to increase the proportion of African American votes to nearly 45 percent, Young put together a coalition of African Americans and white liberals to defeat his Republican opponent by a vote of 72,289 to 64,495, becoming the first African American to be elected to Congress from the Deep South since the Reconstruction Era.

Mastering the art of the negotiating style of politics and of de-racializing what he called "people" issues, Young quickly became an influential Democrat in the House and was returned to Congress in landslide victories of 72 percent in 1974 and 80 percent in 1976. He consistently voted against increased military expenditures and in favor of legislation to assist the poor, but his readiness to compromise and conciliate made him remarkably acceptable to all factions of the Democratic Party. In 1976, believing former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was the only Democratic candidate who could deliver the South and win in November, Young was the first nationally known elected official to publicly endorse him. Throughout the year Young campaigned on Carter's behalf and was generally credited with mustering the heavy support from African American voters which proved decisive to Carter's victories in key primaries and in the general election. On December 16, 1976, President-elect Carter nominated Young for the position of America's ambassador and chief delegate to the United Nations.

During his brief and stormy career at the United Nations Young was the most outspoken and influential of all Carter's many African American appointees, playing an important diplomatic role which transcended the traditional activities of a U.N. ambassador. He emerged as a leading architect and spokesman for American relations with African and Third World nations. A storm of protest from Israeli and American Jewish leaders following Young's violation of the government's prohibition against meeting with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), however, forced the ambassador to resign on August 15, 1979.

In October 1981 Young was elected mayor of Atlanta after a hard-fought general campaign against six other aspirants and a runoff election against Sidney Marcus, a white state representative. Receiving 55 percent of the vote, the 49-year old preacher, civil rights activist, and politician became Atlanta's second African American mayor. He took office at a time of reduced federal spending to help cities and a shrinking local tax base caused by the movement of white residents and businesses to the suburbs. He also faced the challenge of governing a predominantly African American city in which most of the economic power was in the hands of whites.

Some critics doubted Young's ability to deal with the Atlanta's problems. He was seen as antibusiness, a weak administrator, and too much of an activist to "bridge the racial gap," as one Georgia politician put it in the New Republic. Young quickly proved his critics wrong. By 1984, Ebony reported, the city had been so successful at attracting new businesses that it was experiencing "a major growth spurt," and by 1988, U.S. News and World Report noted, a survey of 385 executives showed that Atlanta was "their overwhelming first choice to locate a business." In addition, the crime rate had dropped sharply.

Though African Americans dominated the city's politics and whites dominated its economy, both groups seemed willing to work together. "My job," Young told Esquire's Art Harris in 1985, "is to see that whites get some of the power and blacks get some of the money." Some black leaders accused Young of catering exclusively to the white business establishment and neglecting the black poor, but he garnered the support of Atlanta's growing black middle class and was reelected decisively in 1985.

Limited by law to two terms as mayor, Young decided to run for governor of Georgia in 1990. "It's something I have to do," he told Robin Toner of the New York Times. "If I don't get elected I think I'd probably say 'Free at last.' But I have to give it my best possible shot." Young ran primarily on his record of presiding over Atlanta's economic boom; he was criticized, however, for not being a "hands-on" mayor, and was blamed for Atlanta's crime rate, which had risen again after falling during the early years of his administration.

There was also the issue of race. Though Young was popular with younger, suburban whites, many rural and small-town white Georgians still hesitated to vote for a black man. Young made it through the first stage of the primary, but was defeated by Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller in a runoff that featured a low black turnout.

The loss left Young free to concentrate on another project - preparing Atlanta to host the 1996 Olympic games. As chairman of the Atlanta Organizing Committee, he was, according to Black Enterprise's Alfred Edmond, Jr., "the reason Atlanta was able to capture and hold the attention of the IOC (International Olympic Committee)." Young's diplomatic experience was important in Atlanta's winning the bid over such contenders as Athens, Greece and Melbourne, Australia: "I knew government officials and business people in almost every country represented in the IOC," he told Edmond. "Our approach was intensely personal."

As of the early 1990s, Young had announced no career plans beyond his involvement in the Olympics, political or otherwise. He has remained, observed Joseph Lelyveld in the New York Times, "a preacher and a moralist." Young described himself in the New Republic as "a reformer … an advocate of change." But his biographer, Carl Gardner, doubted that Young was ever much of a long-range planner of his own life. "That wasn't his style," Gardner wrote. "He always let things happen. He just naturally evolved."

In June of 1997 Young told Emerge magazine the younger son of Martin Luther King Jr. had asked him to form a commission to investigate King's 1968 assassination. Young said Dexter King, head of the King Center in Atlanta, wanted him to set up "something like a truth commission in South Africa. He's saying, 'Let's declare an amnesty (for confessed King assassin James Earl Ray). Then let's go back and look at the assassination,"' Young said in the interview, published in the magazine's July-August issue.

Further Reading

Good background for Young's role in SCLC are David L. Lewis, King: A Critical Biography (1970) and Paul Good, The Trouble I've Seen (1975). For his political views in the 1970s see Roger M. Williams, "The Making of Andrew Young," Saturday Review (October 16, 1976).

Additional Sources

Discovering Biography, Gale Research (1997).

Jones, Bartlett C., Flawed Triumphs: Andy Young at the United Nations (1996).

Simpson, Janice Clair, Andy Young: A Matter of Choice (1978).

Young, Andrew, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America (1996).

politician; civil rights activist

Personal Information

Born Andrew Jackson Young Jr. on March 12, 1932, in New Orleans, LA; son of Andrew Jackson (a dentist) and Daisy (maiden name, Fuller; a teacher) Young; married Jean Childs, 1954 (died 1994); married Carolyn McClain, 1996; children: Andrea, Lisa, Paula, Andrew III
Education: Howard University, BS, 1951; Hartford Theological Seminary, BDiv, 1955.
Memberships:
Selected: Member of board of directors of Delta Air Lines, Argus, Host Marriott Corp., Archer Daniels Midland, Cox Communications, Thomas Nelson Publishing, Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Career

United Church of Christ, Marion, AL, and Thomasville and Beachton, GA, pastor, 1955-57; National Council of Churches, New York City, associate director for youth work, 1957-61; United Church of Christ Christian Education Program, Atlanta, GA, administrator, 1961-64; Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), administrative assistant, 1962-64, executive director, 1964-68, executive vice-president, 1968-70; Atlanta Community Relations Commission, chair, 1970-72; U.S. House of Representatives, congressman from Georgia's fifth district, 1972-76; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 1977-79; Atlanta, Georgia, mayor, 1982-90; Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, chair, 1990; National Council of Churches, president, 2000-2001. Founder and head of Young Ideas, a consulting firm; chairman, GoodWorks International.

Life's Work

As a civil rights activist in the turbulent 1960s and one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most trusted lieutenants, Andrew Young earned a reputation for tact and diplomacy. As an outspoken ambassador to the United Nations (UN) under the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, he often stirred controversy. Young's dynamic style of balancing principle and pragmatism has confused and angered some, but has won the respect of opponents as well as allies, rendering him one of the most effective and influential African-American political leaders of the twentieth century.

The son of a dentist and a teacher, Young grew up in a predominantly Italian and Irish neighborhood in New Orleans, which, like other southern cities, was generally segregated. His parents tried to shield him from racism but, Young recalled in Time in 1979, "I was taught to fight when people called me 'Nigger.'" He continued, "That's when I learned that negotiating was better than fighting."

Young had learned to read and write before he started school and graduated from high school at the age of 15. In the fall of 1947 he entered Howard University, where he majored in biology, preparing to follow his father into dentistry. As he later acknowledged, though, he was more interested in the social side of college life. Still, Young was inspired by Howard's president, Mordecai Johnson, an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi who did much to spread the Indian activist's principles of nonviolent resistance among young African-Americans. In his senior year, Young became disillusioned with the superficiality and snobbery he felt was common among his classmates, and an encounter with a young white man who was on his way to Africa to do missionary work brought him to a point of decision: he abandoned his plans for dental school and decided to become a minister.

Learned from King

Young went north to study at Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut and, upon his ordination as a minister of the United Church of Christ in 1955, was sent south to be a pastor in the small towns of Marion, Alabama, and Thomasville and Beachton, Georgia. The civil rights movement, under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, was entering a new phase: the strategy of legal action initiated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was being supplemented by Gandhian tactics of civil disobedience, boycotts, and other direct action. Inspired by the example of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, Young began organizing his parishioners into community action groups and leading voter registration drives, in spite of threats from the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.

In 1957 Young went north again, this time to serve as associate director of the Department of Youth Work of the National Council of Churches. In his four years in the council's New York office, he developed the administrative and political skills that he would later put to good use in the civil rights movement, Congress, and the United Nations. In 1961, the United Church of Christ began a voter education program aimed at southern blacks, and Young was chosen to lead it. Back in Atlanta, he became involved with King's organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and in 1962 became King's administrative assistant. It was a difficult role that Young handled deftly. As fellow activist and later Georgia State Senator Julian Bond put it in the New York Times in 1976, "King was the spear thrower, and Andy came behind and put it all together. He could be the man on the tightrope and he never slipped."

Young took over as SCLC's executive director in 1964 and remained at King's side during campaigns throughout the South and in Chicago, accompanying King and the SCLC in the antiwar movement and movements for economic justice. Young, like most of the other SCLC leaders, opposed King's decision to go to Memphis, Tennessee, to support the sanitation workers' strike in 1968, but eventually joined the effort. He was standing in the courtyard of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, when he heard the gunshot that ended King's life.

In the aftermath of King's assassination, Young, Abernathy, and the other SCLC ministers carried on the leader's work. But in the late 1960s support for the discipline of nonviolence ebbed, and without its charismatic leader the SCLC was less effective. After a series of exhausting battles in support of black workers and the poor, Young decided to change his own direction. In 1970 he announced that he would run for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from Georgia's fifth district.

Joined Political Process

Southern politics had changed during Young's years in Atlanta. A black man, Maynard Jackson, had recently been elected vice-mayor, and blacks and liberals were contesting elections throughout the state. In the fifth district, which was 40 percent black, Young found himself opposed in the primary by two white candidates and one black. He won the primary but lost the general election, in part due to low turnout by black voters.

In the aftermath of the election, Young was appointed chair of the Community Relations Commission (CRC). Though the CRC was an advisory group with no enforcement powers, Young took an activist role, pressing the city government on many issues, from sanitation and open housing to mass transit, consumer affairs, and Atlanta's drug problem. By the time the 1972 election approached, he had a higher public profile as well as an answer to critics who had called him inexperienced in government.

The election of 1972 was a hard-fought campaign waged against the background of the Richard Nixon-George McGovern contest for the presidency. In November of 1972, in spite of the Republican landslide in the presidential race, Young won with nearly 53 percent of the vote in a district that was 62 percent white, without the benefit of an exceptionally large black turnout. He was the first black representative to be elected from the South in 70 years as well as the first from Georgia since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period.

Young believed in the "New South" and the potential of the coalition of blacks, white liberals, and labor voters who had elected him. Though he upheld his vocal stand on racial issues, he told an Ebony correspondent, "I've never been given to a lot of blacker-than-thou rhetoric and that will not be the style that I'll adopt in Washington. You cannot serve a black issue by approaching it as such--or not in this Congress. Instead you must plug for jobs...or a day-care program, or some similar goal." As Young had said during the campaign, "The main role of a congressman is to bring together a variety of opinions that a lot of people can support."

Young quickly proved himself adept at the negotiating and committee work that make legislation pass. His biographer, Carl Gardner, quoted Congressman Morris Udall as saying that Young "could make public statements and play to public opinion and get attention. But he doesn't. He plays the inside game, works within the Congress, and does it very effectively." Fellow Democratic Representative Shirley Chisholm praised his leadership qualities, noting his skill in mediating within the Congressional Black Caucus. Young also became known his willingness to take a public stand on principle, appearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee to defend the principle of affirmative action and publicly criticize President Nixon for slowing progress on civil rights.

Young easily won re-election in 1974 and 1976. In 1976 he was also deeply involved in the presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter, whom he had known since 1970 when they were both newcomers to Georgia politics. Young was the first prominent black politician to endorse Carter and was given much of the credit for Carter's good showing among black voters in the primaries and the general election.

Became UN Ambassador

It was no surprise when Young resigned his congressional seat to take the post of ambassador to the United Nations. Though the UN ambassador had traditionally been little more than a mouthpiece for the State Department, Young immediately made it known that he would not be confined by tradition. "I wanted [Secretary of State] Cyrus Vance to understand my kind of independent style," he told a New York Times reporter. "There is a sense in which the United States Ambassador speaks to the United States, as well as for the United States. I have always seen my role as a thermostat, rather than a thermometer. So I'm going to be actively working...for my own concerns. I have always had people advise me on what to say, but never on what not to say."

During the two and a half years of his tenure at the UN, Young frequently expressed his opinions. Many of his statements were controversial, and several conflicted with official U.S. policy, as when he stated the day after he was sworn in that Cuban troops had brought "a certain stability and order" to Angola. He was particularly outspoken on African issues, in which he had taken a strong interest since his election to Congress. He visited the continent several times and took an active role in trying to resolve disputes there. His attacks on apartheid--a racially segregated form of government--in South Africa, including his questioning of the legitimacy of the South African government, outraged American conservatives, as did his attacks on human rights violations and racism in the United States and throughout the world.

Though there were periodic calls for his resignation and the State Department was occasionally forced to issue statements denying that Andrew Young spoke for the government of the United States, he kept Carter's support. This was in large part due to the fact that he was the first American official in years--perhaps ever--to achieve real credibility in the Third World.

Many wondered why Young, previously known for his tact, had begun delivering statements that were seen as outrageous, especially since he had become a diplomat. But Young, Gardner wrote, saw himself as a "point man," the lead soldier in an infantry patrol, the one who scouts out dangerous territory and is most likely to draw enemy fire. Young said he had told Secretary of State Vance "that there were a number of things the American people were thinking about. I told him that if he did not mind, I would raise controversial points and talk about them."

Ironically, Young's downfall came in August of 1979, not because of a public statement, but because of an attempt at quiet diplomacy. Trying to forestall a UN Security Council debate on Palestinian rights that he believed would be detrimental to U.S. efforts to advance peace negotiations in the Middle East, he met with Zehdi Labib Terzi, the UN observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This was a violation of explicit State Department rules prohibiting official contact with the PLO, and when news of the meeting was leaked to the press, Young was forced to resign. He did so without any sign of anger or repentance: "It is very difficult to do the things that I think are in the interest of the country and maintain the standards of protocol and diplomacy," a Time correspondent quoted him as saying. "I really don't feel a bit sorry for anything that I have done. And I could not say to anybody that given the same situation I wouldn't do it again almost exactly the same way."

Elected Mayor of Atlanta

Young returned to private life for two years, devoting himself to his consulting firm, Young Ideas. In 1981, at the urging of Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., and other black Atlantans, he decided to run for mayor. "I'm a public person," he explained in the New Republic, "and there's nothing more exciting than America's cities." After a bitterly fought campaign and an election tainted by racial overtones, Young won with 55 percent of the vote. U.S. News & World Report predicted that "whatever skills Andrew Young had as a diplomat will be needed to curb racial divisions and a host of other troubles that boiled up in his election." The "other troubles" included a massive budget deficit, widespread poverty, a rising crime rate, and the flight of white residents to the suburbs.

Some critics doubted Young's ability to deal with the Atlanta's problems. He was seen as antibusiness, a weak administrator, and too much of an activist to "bridge the racial gap," as one Georgia politician put it in the New Republic. Young quickly proved his critics wrong. By 1984, Ebony reported, the city had been so successful at attracting new businesses that it was experiencing "a major growth spurt," and by 1988, U.S. News & World Report noted, a survey of 385 executives showed that Atlanta was "their overwhelming first choice to locate a business." In addition, the crime rate dropped sharply, and racial harmony seemed an established fact.

Though African-Americans dominated the city's politics and whites dominated its economy, both groups seemed willing to work together. "My job," Young told Esquire'; s Art Harris in 1985, "is to see that whites get some of the power and blacks get some of the money." Some black leaders accused Young of catering exclusively to the white business establishment and neglecting the black poor, but he garnered the support of Atlanta's growing black middle class and was reelected decisively in 1985.

Limited by law to two terms as mayor, Young decided to run for governor of Georgia in 1990. "It's something I have to do," he told Robin Toner of the New York Times. "If I don't get elected I think I'd probably say 'Free at last.' But I have to give it my best possible shot." Young ran primarily on his record of presiding over Atlanta's economic boom; he was criticized, however, for not being a "hands-on" mayor, and was blamed for Atlanta's crime rate, which had risen again after falling during the early years of his administration.

There was also the issue of race. Though Young was popular with younger, suburban whites, many rural and small-town white Georgians still hesitated to vote for a black man. Young made it through the first stage of the primary, but was defeated by Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller in a runoff that featured a low black turnout.

Played Role of Elder Statesman

The loss left Young free to concentrate on another project--preparing Atlanta to host the 1996 Olympic games. As chairman of the Atlanta Organizing Committee, he was, according to Black Enterprise'; s Alfred Edmond, Jr., "the reason Atlanta was able to capture and hold the attention of the IOC [International Olympic Committee]." Young's diplomatic experience was important in Atlanta's winning the bid over such contenders as Athens, Greece and Melbourne, Australia: "I knew government officials and business people in almost every country represented in the IOC," he told Edmond. "Our approach was intensely personal." The Atlanta Olympics were a major success, yet another feather in the cap of one of America's most effective political leaders.

On a personal level, the 1990s offered a number of challenges for Young. In 1991, his wife, Jean, learned that she had cancer of the colon that had metastasized to her liver. Following a long battle with the cancer, Jean died on September 16, 1994. Also in 1991, Young's son Bo, a freshman at Howard University, was stopped by police a block from campus and beaten in full view of witnesses, for no apparent reason. An investigation later cleared the Washington, D.C., police from any wrongdoing. And in 1999, Young waged a successful battle of his own against prostate cancer.

Young's work with the Olympics was characteristic of the many ventures he took on as a senior statesman. Young served for a time as chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and as vice chairman of Law Companies Group, a consulting firm. Young also served as chairman of GoodWorks International, a consulting group for global economics, and held a public affairs professorship at Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He was asked to serve on the board of directors of numerous companies and organizations, including Delta Air Lines, Argus, Host Marriott Corp., Archer Daniels Midland, Cox Communications, Thomas Nelson Publishing, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In April 1996, Young remarried Carolyn McClain, a longtime family friend, in Cape Town, South Africa. The couple lives in Atlanta.

No matter the position, Young has remained "a preacher and a moralist," observed Joseph Lelyveld in the New York Times. Nowhere was this more true than when he accepted the presidency of the National Council of Churches (NCC) for 2000-2001. On taking that position, Young said he would be talking more about poverty and less and less about racism because "racism is one of the symptoms of poverty and insecurity." He added, "most of the problems we face in America, whether crime or education problems or hate groups, are derived from what Martin Luther King used to call 'the lonely islands of poverty in the midst of this ocean of material wealth.'" Though he was withdrawing from more active roles in the 2000s, Young remained a powerful voice for progressive political change in America.

Awards

Selected: Pax-Christi Award, St. Johns University, 1970; Spingarn Medal, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1978; Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 1980; numerous honorary degrees.

Works

Selected writings

• A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew Young, T. Nelson, 1994.
• An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America, HarperCollins, 1996.

Further Reading

Books

• DeRoche, Andrew, Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador, Scholarly Resources, 2003.
• Gardner, Carl, Andrew Young: A Biography, Drake, 1978.
• Jones, Bartlett C. Flawed Triumphs: Andy Young at the United Nations, University Press of America, 1996.

• Black Enterprise, January 1991.
• Ebony, February 1973; August 1984.
• Esquire, June 1985.
• Jet, August 20, 2001.
• New Republic, September 23, 1981.
• New York Times, December 17, 1976; February 6, 1977; August 16, 1979; May 22, 1990.
• Time, August 27, 1979.
• U.S. News & World Report, November 9, 1981; July 25, 1988.

• "Andrew Young," Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, www.gsu.edu/~wwwsps/people/YoungA.htm (September 14, 2004).
• "NCC President 2000-2001: Ambassador Andrew Young," National Council of Churches USA, www.ncccusa.org/about/young.html (September 14, 2004).

— Tim Connor and Tom Pendergast

Quotes:

"Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died."

"You have to expect that if you cuss out the world, The world is going to cuss back."

"Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you've got."

"On the soft bed of luxury many kingdoms have expired."

"Moral power is probably best when it is not used. The less you use it the more you have."

"We rise in glory as we sink in pride."

See more famous quotes by Andrew Young

For other persons of the same name, see Andrew Young (disambiguation).

Andrew Young
14th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office 1977 – 1979
President	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	William Scranton
Succeeded by	Donald McHenry
55th Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
In office 1982 – 1990
Preceded by	Maynard Jackson
Succeeded by	Maynard Jackson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 5th district
In office January 3, 1973 – January 29, 1977
Preceded by	Fletcher Thompson
Succeeded by	Wyche Fowler
Born	March 12, 1932 (1932-03-12) (age 77) New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Jean Young (deceased), Carolyn M. Young
Alma mater	Dillard University Howard University Hartford Seminary
Profession	Pastor and Politician
Religion	United Church of Christ

Andrew Jackson Young (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat and pastor from Georgia who has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He served as President of the National Council of Churches USA, and was a supporter and friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta was named after him. International Boulevard, near Centennial Olympic Park, has been re-named Andrew Young International Boulevard, in honor of his efforts to secure the Olympic bid for Atlanta.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Career in Congress 4 UN Ambassador 5 Atlanta mayor 6 Private citizen 7 Community Development 8 Books 9 Awards 10 Documentary producer 11 Wal-Mart 12 Footnotes 13 References 14 External links

Early life

Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Daisy Fuller Young, a school teacher, and Andrew Jackson Young, Sr., a dentist. Young's father hired a professional boxer to teach Andrew and his brother how to fight, so they could defend themselves. From that, Andrew decided that violence was not the path he would choose to follow.^{[citation needed]}

Education

After beginning his higher education at Dillard University, Young transferred to Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1947, and received his Bachelor of Science in pre-dentistry degree there in 1951. He originally had planned to follow his father's career of dentistry, but then felt a religious calling. He entered the Turner-Boatright Christian ministry school and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1955.

Young is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American students. On April 1, 2008, Young was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa from the Bridgewater College during the 11 a.m. convocation in the Carter Center for Worship and Music led by Bridgewater President Phillip C. Stone.^[1]

Young was appointed to serve as pastor of a church in Marion, Alabama. It was there in Marion that he met Jean Childs, who later became his wife. In 1957, Andrew was called to the Youth Division of The National Council of Churches in New York City. He produced a television program for youth called, Look Up and Live, travelled to Geneva for meetings of the World Council of Churches around the United States. 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 in St. Augustine, Florida. Young played a key role in the events in Birmingham, Alabama, serving as a mediator between the white and black communities. 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. As a colleague and friend to Martin Luther King Jr. he was a key strategist and negotiator during the Civil Rights Campaigns in Birmingham (1963), St. Augustine (1964), and Selma (1965) that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. He was with King in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968.

In 2005, to honor the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Ambassador Young, William Wachtel and Norman Ornstein founded Why Tuesday?, a nonpartisan group dedicated to increasing voter participation.

Career in Congress

In 1970 Andrew Young ran as a Democrat for Congress from Georgia, but was unsuccessful. After his defeat, Rev. Fred C. Bennette, Jr., introduced him to Murray M. Silver, Esq., Atlanta, Georgia, Attorney, who served as his campaign finance chairman, promoted concerts featuring top entertainers including Harry Belafonte and Bill Withers. He ran again in 1972 and won. He later was re-elected in 1974 and in 1976. During his four-plus years in Congress he was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and he was involved in several debates regarding foreign relations including the decision to stop supporting the Portuguese attempts to hold on to their colonies in southern Africa. Young also sat on the powerful Rules committee and the Banking and Urban Development committee. Young opposed the Vietnam War,^[2] helped enact legislation that established a U.S. Institute for peace, established the Chattahoochee River National Park and negotiated federal funds for MARTA and the Atlanta Highways.

UN Ambassador

Ambassador Young, calling from New York City on an STU-I secure phone during the Israel-Egypt peace talks. (NSA museum)

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Young to serve as Ambassador to the UN, the first African-American to serve in the position. Young's controversial statements made headlines almost from the start. In August 1979, he appeared on Meet the Press and said that Israel was "stubborn and intransigent."^[3] Young met secretly, in violation of American law, with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which culminated in Carter asking for Young's resignation.^[4] Jimmy Carter denied any complicity in The Andrew Young Affair.

As UN Ambassador, Young played a leading role in advancing a settlement in Zimbabwe with Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.

Atlanta mayor

In 1981, Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, succeeding Maynard Jackson. As mayor of Atlanta, he brought in $70 billion of new private investment, including the 1996 Olympic Games- making Atlanta the engine of prosperity for Georgia that it remains today.^{[citation needed]} He continued and expanded Maynard Jackson's programs for including minority and female-owned businesses in all city contracts. Atlanta hosted the 1988 Democratic National Convention, and the Mayor's Task Force on Education established the Dream Jamboree College Fair that tripled the college scholarships given to Atlanta public school graduates. He also revamped the Atlanta Zoo, making ecological habitats specific to different animals.^{[citation needed]} Young was re-elected as Mayor in 1985 with more than 80% of the vote.

Private citizen

Young ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Georgia in 1990, losing in the Democratic primary run-off to future Governor Zell Miller. However, while running for the Statehouse, he simultaneously was serving as a co-chairman of a committee which, at the time, was attempting to bring the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta. Young played a significant role in the success of Atlanta's bid to host the Summer Games.

In 1996, Young wrote A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew Young, published by Thomas Nelson.

Young is currently co-chairman 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 Web site 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 Good Works' 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 also has been a director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, and also is the chairman of the board for the Global Initiative for the Advancement of Nutritional Therapy.^[5]

In 2004 Young briefly considered running for U.S. Senate after the incumbent, Zell Miller, announced his retirement, but decided not to re-enter public life.

On January 22, 2008, Young appeared as a guest on the Comedy Central talk show parody The Colbert Report. Host Stephen Colbert invited Young to appear during the writer's strike, because, many years earlier, Young and Colbert's father had worked together, but on opposite sides, to mediate a Charleston, South Carolina hospital workers' strike.

Young made another appearance on the The Colbert Report on November 5, 2008 to talk about the election of Barack Obama to the presidency.

Young had four children with his first wife, Jean Childs, who died of cancer in 1994. He married his second wife, Carolyn McClain, in 1995.

Community Development

The Andrew Young Foundation was founded to support and promote education, health, leadership and human rights in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean. Formed in the context of a philosophy of nonviolent social change and a belief that to unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required, the foundation works to support, promote and develop global institutions and leaders with the capacity and knowledge to improve and enhance social and economic justice and human rights through faith, nonviolent action, democratic institutions and socially responsible for-profit corporations.

The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies,Georgia State University is one of the country's best schools of public policy. The school offers degrees in public policy, urban studies and economics. Affiliated centers provide vital research on local, national and international issues, including areas such as health, public finance and tax policy. AYSPS students come from 40 countries and the United States pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics, public administration and public policy.

Andrew Young Center for International Affairs, Morehouse College provides overall leadership to the college's international education objectives and assists in creating an institutional culture of internationalism. Central to its mission is the preparation of students for service in the global community. The vision is to help students to realize their leadership potential with the full understanding of this country's role in global affairs and national civic improvements.

Andrew and Walter Young YMCA is the only full service "Y" operating in Southwest Atlanta. Community programs include a newly renovated child care center, summer youth programs, a teen mom's program, as well as health and fitness programs for every age-children to seniors.

Jean Childs Young Institute for Youth Leadership improves the quality of life for youth through leadership, collaboration, advocacy and service in partnerhip with adults, and supports them in identifying and implementing solutions to the problems they face in the community. The Institute is unique because the teens, themselves, set the agenda.

Ambassador Young also funds several film projects encouraging and supporting Americans to explore African countries.

The Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund (SAEDF) established in October 1994, is an initiative of the Former President William Jefferson Clinton of the United States, Former President Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South Africa, and the US Congress for the specific purpose of providing funding to stimulate the creation and expansion of small and medium-size indigenous businesses throughout southern Africa.The Honorable Andrew Young, former congressman, Mayor, United Nations Ambassador and Civil rights leader, was appointed as Chairman by President Clinton. SAEDF is an enterprise fund whose primary objective is to assist the countries of the southern African region with the specific purpose of providing funding to stimulate the creation and expansion of small and medium-size indigenous businesses throughout southern Africa.The promotion of enterprise development is expected to stimulate social development and have economic impact in the region. SAEDF provides wholesale and retail long-term risk capital to promising enterprises from the indigenous groups that might otherwise have been ignored by potential investors in the general marketplace. It also co-invests with other institutions or organizations that share the same investment objectives.

Books

• An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. (Jan 1998)
• A Way Out of No Way. (June 1996)
• Andrew Young at the United Nations. (Jan 1978)
• Andrew Young, Remembrance & Homage. (Jan 1978)
• The History of the Civil Rights Movement. (9 volumes) (Sept 1990)
• Trespassing Ghost: A Critical Study of Andrew Young. (Jan 1978)
• The History of the Civil Rights Movement. (Sep 1990)

Awards

• Presidential Medal of Freedom^[2]
• France's Légion d'honneur
• The NAACP's Springarn Medal
• More than 45 honorary degrees including awards from Dartmouth, Yale, Notre Dame, Clark Atlanta, Emory, and the University of Georgia.

Documentary producer

Rwanda Rising^[6] premiered as the opening night selection at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2007.^[7] Produced, narrated and financed by Young, this documentary told of a remarkable transformation taking place in Rwanda just over a dozen years after one of the worst genocides in history. Although the story had been all but overlooked by the mainstream media – which Young believes has systemically failed to report positive stories from Africa – he found the people of Rwanda no longer identified themselves by ethnic group, but, rather, had forgiven one another and joined forces as Rwandans to rebuild their country.

A number of prominent African American actors supported Young's project with voiceovers, including Danny Glover, Forrest Whitaker, Louis Gossett Jr., Levar Burton, Cicely Tyson, Phylicia Rashad, Jasmine Guy, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Lorraine Toussaint, and Elizabeth Omilami.

An edited version of Rwanda Rising served as the pilot episode of Andrew Young Presents,^[8] a series of quarterly, hour long specials airing on nationally syndicated television. Each program expands on Young's optimism with regard to Africa and the world.^[9]

Young has said he is working on documentaries in Nigeria and Tanzania and has completed major videotaping.^{[citation needed]}

Wal-Mart

Working Families for Wal-Mart, a purported grassroots organization started and funded by Wal-Mart, was headed by Young.^[10] Young created a controversy during an interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel. When asked about Walmart hurting independent businesses, he said that, "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us — selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables... I think they've ripped off our communities. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs. Very few black people own these stores"^[11]

Footnotes

1. ^ Bridgewater College To Honor Andrew Young, Faculty On Founder's Day April 1
2. ^ ^{a b} "Andrew Young". Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-9078051. 
3. ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 273. ISBN 0465041957. 
4. ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 272. ISBN 0465041957. 
5. ^ Global Initiative For The Advancement of Nutritional Therapy
6. ^ Rwanda Rising (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
7. ^ Premiere Of Rwanda Rising Is Sept. 1, The Chattanoogan, August 13, 2007
8. ^ "Andrew Young Presents" (2008) at the Internet Movie Database
9. ^ Andrew Young Presents official website
10. ^ Young faces criticism in position on Wal-Mart, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 25, 2006
11. ^ Wal-Mart Image-Builder Resigns, New York Times, August 18, 2006

References

• Andrew Young, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America New York: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 978-0060173623
• Bartlett Jones, Flawed Triumphs: Andy Young at the United Nations Lanham: University Press of America, 1996.
• Andrew DeRoche, Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 2003. ISBN 978-0842029575
• Oral History Interview by Dr. Mel Steely, May 1997 (Georgia's Political Heritage Project,University of West Georgia)
• Transcript, Andrew J. Young, Jr., Oral History Interview I, 1970-06-18, by Thomas H. Baker, Internet Copy, LBJ Library. Accessed 2005-04-03.

External links

• Young's Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Biography (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
• Andrew Young Global Health Institute, a project of the Global Initiative for the Advancement of Nutritional Therapy
• Oral History Interview with Andrew Young from Oral Histories of the American South
• Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
• Andy Youngs's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• Good Works International, founder
• Andrew Young's federal campaign contribution report
• Andrew Young at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Fletcher Thompson	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 5th congressional district 1973 – 1977	Succeeded by Wyche Fowler
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by William Scranton	U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 1977 – 1979	Succeeded by Donald McHenry
Political offices
Preceded by Maynard Jackson	Mayor of Atlanta 1982 – 1990	Succeeded by Maynard Jackson

v • d • e African-American Civil Rights Movement Topics and events (timeline) Albany Movement · Birmingham campaign · Black Power · Brown v. Board of Education · Civil Rights Act of 1964 · Civil Rights Act of 1968 · Emmett Till · Freedom Riders · Freedom Summer · Greensboro sit-ins · Greyhound Bus Station (Montgomery, Alabama) · Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections · Little Rock Nine · March on Washington · Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party · Montgomery Bus Boycott · Nashville sit-ins · Poor People's Campaign · Selma Voting Rights Movement · Twenty-fourth Amendment · Voting Rights Act of 1965 Activists Ralph Abernathy · Victoria Gray Adams · Ella Baker · James Bevel · Stokely Carmichael · Shirley Chisholm · Dorothy Cotton · Claudette Colvin · Vernon Dahmer · Annie Devine · Medgar Evers · James Farmer · James Forman · Marie Foster · Fannie Lou Hamer · Dorothy Height · Aaron Henry - Myles Horton - T. R. M. Howard · Jesse Jackson · T.J. Jemison · Matthew Jones · Clyde Kennard · Coretta Scott King · Martin Luther King, Jr. · Bernard Lafayette · James Lawson · John Lewis · Viola Liuzzo · Joseph Lowery · Clara Luper · Malcolm X · Thurgood Marshall · James Meredith · Amzie Moore - Bob Moses · William Moyer · Diane Nash · E. D. Nixon · James Orange · James Peck · Rosa Parks · Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. · A. Philip Randolph · Amelia Boynton Robinson · Bayard Rustin · Modjeska Monteith Simkins · Fred Shuttlesworth · Kelly Miller Smith · Charles Kenzie Steele · C. T. Vivian · Wyatt Tee Walker · Roy Wilkins · Hosea Williams · Andrew Young · Whitney Young Activist groups Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) · Highlander Folk School - Leadership Conference on Civil Rights · Montgomery Improvement Association - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) · NAACP Youth Council · National Council of Negro Women - National Urban League - Operation Breadbasket · Regional Council of Negro Leadership - Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) · Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) · Women's Political Council

v • d • e Cabinet of President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)   Cabinet Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (1977–1980) • Edmund Muskie (1980-1981) Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal (1977–1979) • G. William Miller (1979-1981) Secretary of Defense Harold Brown (1977–1981) Attorney General Griffin Bell (1977-1979) • Benjamin R. Civiletti (1979-1981) Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus (1977-1981) Secretary of Agriculture Robert Bergland (1977-1981) Secretary of Commerce Juanita M. Kreps (1977-1979) • Philip M. Klutznick (1979-1981) Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall (1977-1981) Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph A. Califano, Jr. (1977-1979) • Patricia Roberts Harris (1979-1979) Secretary of Health and Human Services Patricia Roberts Harris (1979-1981) Secretary of Education Shirley M. Hufstedler (1979-1981) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Patricia Roberts Harris (1977-1979) • Maurice "Moon" Landrieu (1979–1981) Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams (1977–1979) • Neil E. Goldschmidt (1979–1981) Secretary of Energy James R. Schlesinger (1977-1979) • Charles W. Duncan (1979-1981)   Cabinet-level Vice President Walter Mondale (1977-1981) Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young (1977 – 1979) • Donald McHenry (1979 – 1981) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Thomas "Bert" Lance (1977) • James T. McIntyre (1978 – 1981) Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Charles L. Schultze (1977 – 1981) Advisor to the President on National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski (1977 – 1981)

v • d • e United States Ambassadors to the United Nations Edward Stettinius, Jr. · Warren Austin · Henry C. Lodge, Jr. · James J. Wadsworth · Adlai Stevenson · Arthur Goldberg · George Ball · James R. Wiggins · Charles W. Yost · George H. W. Bush · John A. Scali · Daniel P. Moynihan · William Scranton · Andrew Young · Donald McHenry · Jeane Kirkpatrick · Vernon A. Walters · Thomas R. Pickering · Edward J. Perkins · Madeleine Albright · Bill Richardson · Richard Holbrooke · John Negroponte · John Danforth · John R. Bolton · Zalmay Khalilzad · Susan Rice

v • d • e Mayors of Atlanta Formwalt · Bomar · Buell · Norcross · Gibbs · Mims · Markham · Butt · Nelson · J. Glen · Ezzard · L. Glenn · Ezzard · Whitaker · Lowe · J. Calhoun · Williams · Hulsey · Ezzard · Hammond · James · Hammock · Spencer · Hammock · Angier · W.L. Calhoun · English · Goodwin · Hillyer · Cooper · J.T. Glenn · Hemphill · Goodwin · King · Collier · Woodward · Mims · Howell · Woodward · Joyner · Maddox · Winn · Woodward · Candler · Key · Sims · Ragsdale · Key · Hartsfield · LeCraw · Hartsfield · Allen · Massell · Jackson · Young · Jackson · Campbell · Franklin

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