Andrew Young

At 92 years old, Andrew Young has this physical status:

Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist.

Young, who began his career as a pastor, became a founder of the civil rights movement, as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr. Young later became involved in politics, first as a US senator. From Georgia, then the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and finally Mayor of Atlanta.

Young has founded or served in several organizations that work on topics of public policy and political lobbying since leaving political office.

Early life

Andrew Young was born in New Orleans on March 12, 1932, to Daisy Young, a schoolteacher, and Andrew Jackson Young, a dentist. Andrew and his brother were taught by a professional boxer, according to their father. Who Speaks for the Negro?, a 1964 interview with author Robert Penn Warren for his book, recalls the tensions of segregation in New Orleans, particularly growing up in a relatively wealthy household. He recalls his parents' efforts to "come segregation" by providing for their children, but was unwilling to help less wealthy black people in the area.

Young spent one year at Dillard University before graduating from Howard University. In 1955, he received his divinity degree from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Personal life and family

Young's first wife, Jean Childs Young, died of liver cancer in 1994, and he has four children with him. Idella Jones Childs was his mother-in-law. Carolyn McClain was married in 1996.

Young was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September 1999 and was successfully removed with surgery in January 2000.

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Early career

Young was nominated to pastor a church in Marion, Alabama. He met Jean Childs, who later became his wife in Marion, who later became his wife. Young became interested in Mahatma Gandhi's theory of nonviolent resistance as a means of social reform. He urged African Americans to vote in Alabama, but he had to face death threats while doing so. It was at this time that Martin Luther King Jr. became a mentor and ally.

In 1955, he became a pastor at Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Georgia.

Young and Jean left New York City in 1957 when he accepted a job with the National Council of Churches' Youth Division. Young spent time in New York City on Look Up and Live, a CBS morning television show produced by the National Council of Churches in an effort to reach out to secular youth.

Young served as a pastor of the Evergland Congregational Church in Beachton, Georgia, from 1957 to 1959.

He attended the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1960. Young, who was no longer satisfied with his New York City job, migrated to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1961, at Bernard Lafayette's invitation, and began to register black voters. Young was a central figure in Birmingham, Alabama, as a mediator between the white and black groups as they battled against a backdrop of demonstrations.

Young was named executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1964. During the Civil Rights Campaigns in Birmingham (1963), Selma (1965), and Atlanta (1966), he was a coworker and friend of Martin Luther King Jr. (1964). He was sentenced to prison for his participation in civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama, and St. Augustine, Florida. The movement gained Congressional acceptance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Young was a teenager in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968.

Post-mayoral career

Young has served as the director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and as the chairman of the Global Initiative for the Advancement of Nutritional Therapy.

Young co-chairman of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in 1996.

Young served as president of the National Council of Churches from 2000 to 2001.

Young established the Andrew Young Foundation in 2003, an association that aims to foster and promote education, health, and human rights in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Young served as Walmart's public spokesman from February to August 2006, as part of a corporate advocacy group for Walmart. Young resigned from the position shortly after a turbulent interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel in which he said, "You see those people who have been overcharging us." They've ripped off our neighborhoods in a good way, according to me. It was Jews first, then it was Koreans, and now it is Arabs.

GoodWorks Productions released Rwanda Rising, a documentary film about Rwanda's development after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In addition, Young served as the film's narrator. In 2007, Rwanda Rising debuted as the first night selection at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

The pilot episode of Andrew Young Presents, a series of quarterly, hour-long specials broadcast on nationally syndicated television, featured an edited version of Rwanda Rising.

Young appeared on the television show The Colbert Report on January 22, 2008. Young was invited to appear at the writers' strike in 1969 because Young and Colbert's father had labored together to mediate a hospital workers' strike. On November 5, 2008, Young appeared on The Colbert Report for the second time, and he talked about Barack Obama's re-election to the presidency.

Young gave the keynote address at Vanderbilt University's Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Day on January 9, 2015. Young talked about his travel experiences in Selma, stories of travelling with King, and his recommendations to the next generation of leaders.

Young delivered the keynote address at Emory University's spring commencement ceremony on May 13, 2019.

Young remarked on the marches in Atlanta in reaction to the assassination of George Floyd on May 29, 2020. "Rather than assisting the cause," he said, demonstrations, violence, and looting "hurt the cause rather than supporting it."

Young is co-chairman of Rodney Cook Sr. Park, as well as National Monuments Foundation President Rodney Mims Cook Jr. This peace park is located on Atlanta's westside and has a strong civil rights emphasis.

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Awards and honors

• Presidential Medal of Freedom;
• France's Légion d'honneur;
• The NAACP Spingarn Medal;
• Four Freedom Award for the Freedom of Worship;
• More than 45 honorary degrees including awards from Dartmouth, Yale, Notre Dame, Clark Atlanta, Emory, Oglethorpe University, Lakeland University and the University of Georgia;
• 1983 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
• 1995 Eagle Award from the United States Sports Academy. The Eagle Award is the Academy's highest honor and was awarded to Young for his significant contribution to international sport.
• Honorary Co-Chair of the World Justice Project;
• 2005 "Louisiana Legend" by Louisiana Public Broadcasting in Baton Rouge, along with timber industrialist Roy O. Martin Jr., comedian Kix Brooks, and the Louisiana State University athletic legends Paul Dietzel and Sue Gunter
• 2010 Heroes, Saints and Legends Honoree, given by the Foundation of Wesley Woods;
• The 2011 Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, for his involvement on Look Up and Live;
• 2012 Georgia Trustee. Given by the Georgia Historical Society, in conjunction with the Governor of Georgia, to individuals whose accomplishments and community service reflect the ideals of the founding body of Trustees, which governed the Georgia colony from 1732 to 1752.
• 2018 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage.