Andrew Young (politician)

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Andrew Young (1977)

Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932 in New Orleans , Louisiana ) is an American civil rights activist and politician ( Democratic Party ). He was Mayor of Atlanta and US Ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter .

Life

Andrew Young's father was a dentist and his mother a teacher.

After a year at Dillard University in New Orleans in 1947 Young went to Howard University in Washington , where he graduated in medicine in 1951 . He originally wanted to follow his father's profession and become a dentist, but changed his mind from religious views and graduated in 1955 with a degree in theology from Hartford Seminary , a non-denominational theological college in Connecticut, USA.

Young was ordained by the Reformed United Church of Christ and then served as the pastor of a parish in Marion , Alabama , where he became familiar with the idea of nonviolent resistance from Mahatma Gandhi . In Marion he also met his future wife Jean Childs. There he called on the African American population to stand up for the right to vote for African Americans in Alabama. He became a friend and ally of Martin Luther King . In 1957 he moved to New York City and worked for the National Council of Churches .

During the civil rights movement , he decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia . There, too, he fought for the introduction of the right to vote for African Americans. In 1964 he became executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , with which he organized many non-violent protests. Andrew Young became a close friend and collaborator of Martin Luther King and was with him in Memphis , Tennessee , when King was shot in 1968 .

He tried unsuccessfully to be elected as a Georgia Congressman in 1970 . He tried again in 1972 and became the first Georgia African American MP in the House of Representatives since the Reconstruction . He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. In 1976, President Jimmy Carter appointed him US Ambassador to the United Nations. Because of a secret meeting with the PLO representative Zehdi Terzi , Young had to resign in 1979.

In 1981 Jimmy Carter awarded him the Freedom Medal . Young was elected mayor of Atlanta in 1981 and confirmed in office in 1985. In 1990 he ran unsuccessfully for the governorship of Georgia and had to admit defeat in the Democratic primary cell Miller . In 1995 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Young was a member of the committee that brought the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta.

Andrew Young is a member of the Freemasons Union , his lodge, St. James Lodge No. 4 is constituted under the Prince Hall Grand Lodge .

literature

  • Andrew J. DeRoche: Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador. Scholarly Resources, Wilmington Del. 2003.
  • Adam Fairclough: To Redeem the Soul of America. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. Reprint. University of Georgia Press, Athens GA 2001.

Web links

Commons : Andrew Young  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Andrew Young , On the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon homepage (accessed February 6, 2013)