Former Atlanta mayor, civil rights icon Andrew Young turns 93

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Andrew Young - civil rights giant, Georgia’s first Black congressional representative in more than a century, former United Nations Ambassador, and 53rd mayor of Atlanta - marked his 93rd birthday on Wednesday.

According to Young’s U.S. House biography, Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 12, 1932. His father was a dentist, and his mother was a schoolteacher. He and younger brother Walt lived in a middle class, predominantly Irish and Italian community, and were the only Black children in the neighborhood.

Young graduated from Gilbert Academy in 1947 and then attended Dillard University, a historically Black university in New Orleans for one year, He then transferred to Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, DC, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1951.

After Howard, Young attended Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, earning a bachelor of divinity degree in 1955, and was ordained a minister in the United Church of Christ.

In 1954, Young married the former Jean Childs, a teacher. They had four children: Andrea, Lisa, Paula, and Andrew III. After his wife died of cancer in 1994, Young married Carolyn Watson, an elementary school teacher.

Young served as a pastor and teacher in Marion, Alabama, and in Thomasville and Beachton, Georgia, until he was invited to work in the Youth Work Division of the National Council of Churches in New York City, where he served as assistant director from 1957 to 1961.

In 1961, Young moved to Atlanta and joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which began under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycotts. By mid-1962, he was working closely with King’s staff.

When King and Ralph Abernathy, another SCLC leader, were arrested and imprisoned for seven weeks for training students to register voters, they relied on Young to handle various duties while they were incarcerated in Albany, Georgia. Young also served as a mediator between the SCLC and the Albany police.

In 1964, King named Young executive director of the SCLC. In his leadership role, Young provided logistical and legal support for prominent demonstrations and legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Young was present on April 4, 1968, when King was shot and killed outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Young was in the motel’s parking lot when James Earl Ray fired the shot, and rushed to King’s side. “A shot rang out that clipped the tip of his chin,” Young would later recall to CNN, “and severed his spinal cord. “I don’t think he even heard it, much less felt it.”

In 1970, Young resigned from the SCLC and ran for the U.S. House in downtown Atlanta’s fifth congressional district. He called for a New South Coalition, which he described as “black votes, liberal votes, [and] white labor votes.” While Young defeated Wyman C. Lowe, a White lawyer, in a runoff election, he lost to two-term incumbent Republican Standish Fletcher Thompson in the general election.

Two years later, when Thompson stepped down to run for U.S. Senate, Young ran again, this time defeating three Democratic primary opponents and defeating Republican Rodney Cook in the general election. Young became the first Black Representative from Georgia since Jefferson F. Long’s election a century earlier.

Young and fellow first-term Representative Barbara Jordan of Texas served as the first Black Members from former-Confederate states since 1901. Young won re-election in 1974 and 1976, and became the first Black representative appointed to the powerful House rules committee.

In 1976, Young seconded Jimmy Carter’s bid for the American presidency at the Democratic National Convention in New York City. On January 29, 1977, after accepting the newly elected President Carter’s offer to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Young resigned from Congress.

Young became the initial point of contact for the Carter administration’s foreign policy in Africa and Asia in an era when the United States competed for influence with the Soviet Union in developing countries. He played an active role in articulating Carter’s position on human rights in Rhodesia, South Africa, and Angola.

Young resigned the ambassadorship in 1979 in the wake of severe criticism following his meeting with Zehdi Labib Terzi, the U.N. observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

From 1982 to 1990, Young served as mayor of Atlanta, traveling extensively to promote Atlanta’s reputation as a financial competitor on the world stage. While mayor, Young also played an active role in bringing the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta. According to his online Georgia State University biography, his support of Hartsfield International Airport made it possible for Atlanta to attract 1,100 new businesses, $70 billion in foreign direct investment, and one million new jobs to the region.

The city hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1988, and Young also led the successful effort to bring the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta.

In 1990, Young ran for governor but lost to then-Lt. Gov. Zell Miller. He eventually formed a consulting firm dedicated to fostering economic development in Africa and the Caribbean. In 2003, Young considered a run for the U.S. Senate, but declined.

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