Andrew Young

Andrew Young, born in 1932, U.S. diplomat and civil rights advocate. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Young was educated at Howard University and Hartford Theological Seminary and was ordained a minister of the United Church of Christ in 1955. A disciple and close associate of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., he became executive director of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1964. After King's assassination in 1968, Young entered politics, and from 1973-77 served as a U.S. representative from Georgia. In 1976 he was a leading supporter of Georgia's former governor Jimmy Carter in the latter's successful bid for the presidency. As U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1977-79), Young promoted understanding between the U.S. and the nations of black Africa. He resigned in August 1979 after a controversy caused by his contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1989, he ran unsuccessfully for the Georgia governorship in 1990.