Andrew Young: A Man of Integrity

The vital lesson of the Civil Rights Movement, is that all of the people who tried to stop it are largely forgotten, while a National Holiday celebrates Civil Rights' leader Martin Luther King's Birthday.  His right hand man was Andrew Young, who was shouldered with "the dirty work" of getting things done.

A gentle, singular man of infinite wisdom and undeniable integrity, Mr. Young led an remarkably diverse life.  Not only was he a key player in the Civil Rights Movement, he also was an American politician, and diplomat.   Young graduated from Howard University in Washington D.C. in 1951. He earned a divinity degree from Hartford Seminary, in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1955.

Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr.  A member of the Democratic Party, Young later became active in politics, serving as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, United States Ambassador in the United Nations, for the Carter Administration, and 55th Mayor of Atlanta. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Georgia since Reconstruction, as well as one of the first two African Americans elected to Congress from the former Confederacy since Reconstruction, alongside Barbara Jordon  of Texas.  Young also tirelessy campaigned for and presided over the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta; it was his decision not to stop the games, after a terrorist attack.

Since leaving public life, Young has founded or served in many organizations working on issues of public policy and political lobbying.

Now a spritely 93-year-old, Andrew Young's long career on the national stage was recently the subject of an MSNBC documentary, produced and hosted by Rachel Maddow, entitled, "The Dirty Work."

Having watched the documentary, I was inspired to search the internet for Andrew Young quotes.  Below is a selection:

"My hope for my children must be that they respond to the still, small voice of God in their own hearts."

"I've had a good life.  I think the reason is my parents taught me that life is a burden.  But if you take it one day at a time, it's an easy burden."

"We think it is complicated to change the world.  Change comes little by little.  Nothing can happen in one generation."

"No nation as rich as ours should have so many people isolated on Islands of poverty in such a sea of material wealth."

"Civil Rights leaders are involved in helping poor people.  That's what I've been doing all my life."

"No one who's White thinks he's innocent.  No one who's Black thinks he's guilty."

"Our school systems have to realize that everybody doesn't learn the same way, and no one learns without some emotional support."

"One of the principles of nonviolence is that you leave your opponent whole and better off than you found him."

"In sane, civil, intelligent and moral society, you don't blame poor people for being poor."

"Any racial reconciliation we've had in this country has come not out of confrontation but out of a spirit of reconciliation."

"Freedom is a struggle, and we do it together.  Not only together as Black citizens, but as Black and White together."

"There can be no democracy without truth.  There can be no truth without controversy.  There can be no change without freedom.  Without freedom there can be no progress."

"Beauty and love are all my dreams; they change not with the changing days: love stays forever like a stream that flows but never flows away."

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