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Here's a look at the life of civil rights activist and former ambassador Andrew Young.
Birthdate: March 12, 1932
Place of birth: New Orleans, Louisiana
Birth name: Andrew Jackson Young Jr.
Father: Andrew Jackson Young, dentist
Mother: Daisy (Fuller) Young, teacher
Marriages: Carolyn (McClain) Young (April 15, 1996-present); Jean (Childs) Young (June 7, 1954 – September 16, 1994, her death)
Children: with Jean (Children) Young: Andrea, Lisa, Paula, Andrew III
Education: Attended Dillard University, 1947-1948; Howard University, BA, Biology, 1951; Hartford Theological Seminary, BD, 1955
He began working with the National Council of Churches on voter registration and voter education projects. Young also began working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at that time.
He helped draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
He gave a speech on the House floor supporting President Richard Nixon's selection of Gerald Ford as vice president. He is the only African American to vote in favor of Ford's confirmation.
Quote about his role as UN ambassador: “In a sense, 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 work actively… for my own interests. “They have always advised me what to say, but never what not to say.”
1955 – He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
mid 1950s – Pastor of several churches in Alabama and Georgia.
1960 – Wins the Peabody Broadcasting and Film Commission Institutional Award for Radio and Television Education from the National Council of Churches of Christ for the programs “Look Up and Live,” “Frontiers of Faith,” “Pilgrimage,” and “Talk-back.”
1961 – He moves to Atlanta and joins the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
May 3, 1963 – He organizes the anti-segregation march in Birmingham, Alabama, where protesters are attacked with hoses and dogs on the orders of Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor.
1964 – Becomes executive director of SCLC.
July-August 1966 – Racial unrest in predominantly white neighborhoods on Chicago's southwest side has Dr. King, Young, SCLC, and the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) rallying to end housing discrimination.
April 1968 – Becomes executive vice president of SCLC after Dr. King's death.
August 1969 – Shifts SCLC's focus from integration and antisegregation activities to voter registration and political activities.
1970 – Resigns from SCLC to run for a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th Congressional District. He loses by more than 20,000 votes.
1972 – Second run for Georgia's 5th Congressional District seat. Redistricting changes the population distribution slightly and Young wins by 7,694 votes.
1974 – He wins re-election by 72% of the votes.
1976 – He wins re-election by 80% of the votes.
December 16, 1976 – President-elect Jimmy Carter names Young ambassador to the United Nations.
January 30, 1977 – He is sworn in as the first African American and 14th United States ambassador to the United Nations before Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
August 15, 1979 – He resigns from his position as ambassador to the UN due to the controversy arising from an unauthorized meeting in July with representatives of the PLO.
1979 – The consulting firm Young Ideas is founded.
1981 – President Carter presents Young with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
October 27, 1981 – He wins the Atlanta mayoral race with 65,798 votes (55.1%) beating Georgia Congressman Sidney Marcus with 53,549 votes (44.8%).
January 5, 1982-January 2, 1990 – Mayor of Atlanta.
October 8, 1985 – He wins re-election with 81% of the votes. In contrast to the 1981 elections, in which 61% of registered voters turned out, in this election only 32% turned out.
1990 – He becomes president of the Atlanta Organizing Committee to bring the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta.
February 5, 1990 – Announces plans to run for governor of Georgia.
August 7, 1990 – Loses runoff for Georgia's Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Lt. Governor Zell Miller.
September 18, 1990 – IOC announces Atlanta as host of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
nineteen ninety six – He co-founded GoodWorks International, a consulting firm advising on responsible business development in Africa and the Caribbean.
1998 – He is a member of the Commission on National Security of the United States in the 21st Century established by President Bill Clinton.
2000-2001 – President of the National Council of Churches.
2007 – He writes and produces the documentary “Rwanda Rising”.
2008 – “Andrew Young Presents” premieres, the documentary series that Young writes and produces.
February 25, 2011 – He receives a special Emmy Award for lifetime achievement, the Trustee Award.
March 9, 2013 – The Georgia Democratic Party presents Young with the John Lewis Lifetime Achievement Award.
August 28, 2013 – Martin Luther King Jr.'s sons, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III, sue to remove Young from the board of directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. At issue is Young's use of footage of his father in a documentary Young produced.
May 11, 2015 – Young is taken to an Atlanta hospital as a precaution after a cement truck rolls over onto his car. He is released the same day.
May 6, 2018 – Young is taken to the hospital after becoming ill in Nashville, with what he later says was a staph infection. After a few days, he is transferred to Atlanta, where he spends several days at Emory University Hospital before being discharged.
October 8, 2020 – Greenwood Bank announces it has raised more than $3 million in seed funding. Young co-founded the bank with Michael “Killer Mike” Render, a rapper and activist, and Ryan Glover, founder of the Bounce TV network. It is inspired by the former Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Black business community destroyed during the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The company, which is Black and Latinx owned, managed and operated, is expected to launch in mid-2021. .
October 19, 2023 – He is promoted to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, for “his outstanding contributions to human rights and equality.” Young received the rank of Knight in 1984.
