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Oral History Interview with Andrew Young, January 31, 1974. Interview A-0080. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    Andrew Young was the first African American congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction. First elected in 1972, Young was later appointed as ambassador to the United Nations by Jimmy Carter. Prior to his career in politics, Young grew up in New Orleans, was educated at Howard University, and then attended Hartford Seminary in the mid-1950s. Young returned to the South after seminary and became involved in the early civil rights movement in Georgia, where he worked as a minister for several years. In this interview, Young discusses the nature of racial discrimination in the South and describes his involvement in voter registration drives. Throughout the interview, he draws comparisons between race relations within southern states and those between the North and South. According to Young, it was access to political power that ultimately altered the tides of racial prejudice in the South. He cites the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as a decisive turning point in race relations. For Young, it was the election of African Americans to positions of power that allowed African Americans to bring to fruition other advances they had made in education, business, and social standing.
    Excerpts
  • Assessment of early civil rights organization in 1950s Georgia
  • Establishment of a liberal judiciary and its impact on civil rights
  • Importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in advancing civil rights
  • Northern and southern reactions to the civil rights movement
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Georgia--Politics and government
  • African American politicians--Georgia
  • Civil rights--Georgia
  • Georgia--Race relations
  • Voter registration--Georgia
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.