Ambassador Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta, speaks to the Upper School during a visit to McCallie on Tuesday
McCallie welcomed a Civil Rights icon to campus Tuesday, as Andrew Young — former congressman, Atlanta mayor and U.S. ambassador to United Nations — visited the Ridge to speak to the Upper School student body and later spend time speaking with students in smaller settings.
Ambassador Young was introduced in Chapel by senior Tahir Murray, a boarding student from the Atlanta area.
In his remarks at Chapel, Ambassador Young told students that with the vast changes in technology making the world more connected, they would have the opportunity to work with people of all races and backgrounds. These opportunity offers the promise to make the world a better place, Ambassador Young said, if the next generation of leaders are ready to address poverty and inequality.
Ambassador Young is a graduate of Howard University and Hartford Theological Seminary, and he was active in the early years of the Civil Rights movement organizing voter-registration drives and working closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Ambassador Young was a key strategist and negotiator during civil rights campaigns that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1972, Ambassador Young became the first African American U.S. representative elected from from the Deep South since Reconstruction, and in 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed Ambassador Young to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. As UN ambassador, Young negotiated an end to white-minority rule in Namibia and Zimbabwe and brought President Carter’s emphasis on human rights to international diplomacy efforts.
In 1981, Ambassador Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, where he served for two terms. He was instrumental in bringing the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta, and since 2003, he and his wife, Carolyn McClain Young, have operated the Andrew J. Young Foundation to support and promote education, health, leadership and human rights in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean. McCallie made a $5,000 donation to the Andrew J. Young Foundation as a show of gratitude for Ambassador Young's visit.
After speaking at Chapel, Ambassador Young joined students and faculty at lunch for more discussion on his life and thoughts about the state of the nation and world.
More photos of Ambassador Young's visit can be found online in a photo gallery from the visit.