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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Whitney M. Young
WHITNEY M. YOUNG, JR.
Awarded by
President Lyndon B. Johnson
January 20, 1969
Whitney M. Young, Jr. has lived his life to redeem the promise of his country--equality for all Americans. A fighter to make his dreams come true, a man of action who has labored to achieve his ideals, his entire career has been an affirmation of what one man's dedication to the goal of the better, more just America can accomplish. The President and the Congress, as well as all the people, have been the beneficiaries of his compassion and concern.
A crusader stepped from the Kentucky countryside, working tirelessly to bring the races together. Whitney Young was a relentless advocate for the poor, visiting rural and urban communities and advocating their cause. He spent most of his career trying to extinguish the fires of racism.
Whitney Young was born in 1921. After attending Kentucky State College, Young joined the Army Specialist Training program. During the Second World War served in an anti-aircraft company of African American soldiers with white officers. This experience of racism increased Young's interest in civil rights.
Young’s father was an educator, teaching at the Lincoln Institute. As a young man, Whitney served in the military during World War II and was promoted quickly.
After the war Young earned a MSW at the University of Minnesota. He became a university lecturer and by 1954 was dean of the School of Social Work at Atlanta University. Active in the NAACP Young became president of its Georgia branch.
In 1960 Young was appointed as executive director of the National Urban League. In this post he managed to increase the budget of the organization and managed to create thousands of new jobs for African Americans.
Young's call for a domestic Marshall Plan influenced the policies of Lyndon Johnson. However, in 1969 Young broke with Johnson over his foreign policy. He joined the campaign against the Vietnam War arguing that it was diverting funds from domestic programs needed by the poor.
After the war, he moved to Georgia where he taught at Atlanta University. He joined the NAACP and rose to state president. At the age of 40, Whitney Young became president of the National Urban League. He served as close adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, plunged the Urban League into the forefront of the civil rights arena, and was instrumental in bringing the 1963 March on Washington to fruition. President Johnson honored him in 1968 with the nation’s highest award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom . On 11th March, 1971, Whitney Young drowned while swimming with friends in Lagos, Nigeria.
John Lewis, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, Martin
Luther King Jr., James Farmer and Roy Wilkins in 1963.
Left to right: Whitney Young, Jr. (Urban League); Martin Luther King, Jr. (SCLC); John Lewis (SNCC); Rabbi Joachim Prinz (American Jewish Congress); Dr. Eugene Carson Blake (National Council of Churches); A. Philip Randolph ; President Kennedy ; Walter Reuther (United Auto Workers); and Vice President Johnson (behind Reuther).
The meeting after the now famous March on Washington in 1963 lasted seventy-two minutes and concentrated on the political maneuvering that would be needed to get the Kennedy civil rights bill through Congress.
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Medal History
