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Civil Rights Leader Whitney M. Young, Jr.
Whitney Young, Jr., (1921–1971) grew up in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky. He graduated from Kentucky State College at the age of eighteen, and earned a master's degree at University of Minnesota's School of Social Work in 1947. The same year, he became director of industrial relations for the St. Paul Urban League and, in 1950, moved to Omaha to serve as executive secretary. In 1954 Young was named dean of the School of Social Work at Atlanta University. Under his leadership, Atlanta became one of the top social work schools in the South. In 1961 he became executive director of the National Urban League, and later he proposed a domestic recovery program to increase economic and educational opportunities for blacks. President Johnson incorporated some of Young's ideas in his War on Poverty program. |