Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young, who came to national prominence as a leader in the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s, will deliver the 2011 Parks-King Lecture at Yale Divinity School on Thursday, Feb. 3, 5:30 pm, in Niebuhr Hall, 409 Prospect St.
An ordained minister and proponent of non-violent resistance for social change, Young was active in the nascent Civil Rights movement in the 1950s. He was a friend and close ally of Martin Luther King Jr., and, when in 1964 Young was named executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he became one of King’s principal lieutenants. He was with King when he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968.
Young served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia from 1972 to 1977, when he was named U.S. Ambassador to the UN by President Jimmy Carter. Young was Mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990.
The title of Ambassador Young’s address is “Where do we go from here; and where is here?” The talk is free and open to the public
The Parks-King Lecture, hosted by Yale Divinity School since 1983, brings the contributions of African American scholars, social theorists, pastors, and social activists to YDS and the greater New Haven community.
