[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 7 (Friday, January 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E92]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO AMBASSADOR ANDREW YOUNG

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 12, 2007

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor 
Ambassador Andrew Young, a man who has given his life to the Civil 
Rights movement and other important social causes. Truly, he is a man 
who consistently puts the interests of others above himself.
  Ambassador Young, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1932 to a 
dentist father and schoolteacher mother, grew up in the segregated 
South. After beginning his college education at Dillard University in 
New Orleans, he transferred to Howard University in Washington, DC.
  In 1951 Ambassador Young graduated from Howard with a degree in pre-
medicine. Instead of medical school, however, he heeded a call to the 
ministry and began his studies in theology at Hartford Seminary in 
Connecticut.
  Graduating in 1955, Ambassador Young became the pastor at several 
small churches in the South, including one in Thomasville, Ga., in my 
own district. He also served as pastor at a church in Marion, Alabama. 
As part of his work there, while encouraging young people to vote, he 
first came in contact with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  The relationship would last for the rest of Ambassador Young's life, 
carrying over into civil rights activities all over the South, 
including the Albany Movement in 1961-62. At that time, the small town 
of 56,000 people had gained a reputation as not just resistant to 
social activists, but impenetrable to change. White leadership in the 
town refused to have conversations with local leaders seeking to 
implement the decision of Boynton v. Virginia, which mandated the 
integration of bus and rail terminals.
  Albany, as it turned out, was also one of the first places Ambassador 
Young made a difference. In late 1961, Dr. King, Reverend Ralph 
Abernathy and some 2,000 other demonstrators had already been jailed 
for their integration efforts. Nevertheless, Ambassador Young saw fit 
to go to Albany to help recruit and train people for citizen education 
workshops, with the aim of keeping the fire burning in Albany. The 
environment was dangerous, tenuous, and hostile, but Ambassador Young 
found a way to inspire and contribute.
  Forty-five years later, we not only honor him, but also reflect on 
how the courage exhibited by him then led to the great accomplishments 
he is known for today: Georgia's first African American Congressman 
since Reconstruction, U.N. Ambassador, Mayor of Atlanta, among others. 
Ambassador Young has led a full and meaningful life, exhibiting a sense 
of public service and commitment to community the whole time.
  Today, we thank and honor Ambassador Young for his contributions and 
the example he set for others.

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