Austin, TX

Learn more about the leaders and luminaries interviewed in the KUT documentary Rediscovering Barbara Jordan.

Ben Barnes Caldwell Butler Joe Califano John Cartwright Bill Clinton John Doar Rodney Ellis Tom Freeman Curtis Graves Barbara Holmes Otis King Bill Lawson

Bud Meyers Dan Rather Ann Richards Mary Beth Rogers Elspeth Rostow Pat Schroeder Max Sherman Alan Simpson Robert Strauss Charlie Wilson Andrew Young

Ben Barnes
Ben Barnes was the Speaker of the House during Barbara Jordan’s Congressional tenure. Elected to the Texas House of Representatives during his early 20s, Ben Barnes became the youngest House Speaker in Texas history. He was a member of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations during Johnson’s presidency, was the U.S. representative to the NATO Conference (1967), and was the U.N. Representative to Geneva, Switzerland (1968). In 1969, Barnes was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas; he served that office until 1973.

Since leaving public office, Barnes has focused on business and civic leadership, founding Entrecorp, a business consulting and lobbying firm. He is active in community service organizations, including the People’s Community Clinic, the Boys and Girls Club, the LBJ Library and School of Public Affairs, the Huntington Art Gallery, and the Longhorn Foundation.

Barnes has been honored with the UT Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor (1993), recognition as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Men in America” by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce (1965). He also holds honorary law degrees from McMurray University and Texas Tech.
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M. Caldwell Butler
M. Caldwell Butler – former Virgina Representative – served as a member of the Judiciary Committee with Barbara Jordan. Born in Roanoke, Virginia on June 2, 1925, Caldwell Butler was the great grandson of James A. Walker. He served as an ensign in the U.S. Navy from 1943 through 1946, then earned his A.B. from the Univeristy of Richmond in 1948, and a LL.B. from the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville in 1950.

Admitted to the Virginia bar in that same year, Butler practiced law until he was elected to the Virginia house of delegates in 1962. He was the chairman of the joint Republican caucus 1964-1966, and was minority leader 1966-1971.

Butler was simulataneously elected as a Republican to the Ninety-second and Ninety-third Congress by special election to fill the vacancy when Representative Richard Poff resigned. Butler was re-elected four times and served in Congress until 1983. He continues to practice law in Roanoke, Virginia.
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Joe Califano
Joe Califano, Jr. has held many posts in the U.S. government and was a professional acquaintance of Barbara Jordan. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 15, 1931, Joe Califano attended St. Gregory’s Elementary School and Brooklyn Preparatory School in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1952, and his LL.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1955.

In 1964, he was appointed Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense. In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of the Department of Defense.

Califano was appointed Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 26, 1965. Called “The Deputy President for Domestic Affairs” by The New York Times, Califano served as President Johnson’s senior domestic policy aide from 1965 until 1969.

Under the Carter administration, Califano was appointed Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1977. He put the Department through the most complete reorganization in its 25-year history, with a focus on childhood immunization, anti-smoking initiatives, a campaign against alcoholism, and publication of Healthy People, the first Surgeon General’s Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Since 1992, he has been the chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He is the author of nine books, including Governing America: An Insider’s Report from the White House and the Cabinet; The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years; and America’s Health Care Revolution: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Pays. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the highest civilian award of the Army.
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John Cartwright
John H. Cartwright was a student with Barbara Jordan at Boston University. John H. Cartwright, Jr., entered Boston University as a seminary student when Martin Luther King, Jr., was completing his doctorate there. Cartwright is now the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Social Ethics at Boston University. His chair was created by Boston University trustees after King’s assassination.
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Bill Clinton
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton awarded Barbara Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and delivered the eulogy at her funeral. William Jefferson Blythe III was born in Hope, Arkanasa, on August 19, 1946. An excellent student and saxaphone player, Clinton considered becoming a professional musician, but as a delegate to the Boys Nation in high school, he met President John Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden and chose to enter a life of public service.

Clinton graduated from Georgetown University and in 1968 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, and married Hillary Rodham in 1975. The following year, Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General, and he won the governorship in 1978. After losing re-election for a second term, he regained the office four years later, and served until he defeated incumbent George Bush and third party candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race.

During his presidency, Clinton proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. Under his leadership, the U.S. enjoyed the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in three decades, the highest home ownership in U.S. history, reduced welfare roles, and a drop in crime rates throughout the country. He also supported legislation to improve education, to restrict handgun sales, and to strengthen environmental rules. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term.

Since leaving public office, Clinton has continued to speak publically on political issues and assisted his wife Hillary Clinton in her Senate campaign. In 2004, he won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra’s album Peter and the Wolf/Wolf Tracks. He won a second Grammy in 2005 for Best Spoken Word Album for My Life, a reading of his memoirs which were published in 2004.
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John Doar
John Doar – independent counsel for the House Judiciary Commitee during the Watergate scandal – was a professional acquaintance of Barbara Jordan. Born December 3, 1921, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, John Michael Doar earned an A.B. from Princeton University in 1944. After JFK was elected President in 1960, Doar served as First Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Deptartment of Justice, from 1960 to 1967, crucial years in the civil rights movement.

Doar prosecuted the federal case for civil rights violations against those accused of lynching Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner—events which were later depicted in the film Mississippi Burning. Doar also contributed to drafting the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which was signed by Lyndon Johnson.

Doar left the government in the later part of the Johnson administration, but returned in 1974 as counsel for the judiciary committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, which was then investigating the Watergate scandal.

He is currently senior counsel for Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack, a law firm in New York City, specializing in Civil Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Ethics and Professional Responsibility.
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Rodney Ellis
Rodney Ellis is the Texas Senator who currently holds Barbara Jordan’s former seat. Rodney Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas Southern University and has a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs; he also earned a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law and studied at the London School of Economics.

Prior to his election to the Texas Senate in 1990, Ellis served three terms on the Houston City Council and was Chief of Staff to the late U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland. In 1999, Ellis passed a tax relief bill that created the three-day sales tax holiday. He also authored the James Byrd, Jr. Act, an anti-hate crimes bill.

Ellis is the co-founder of Apex Securities, Inc., an investment banking firm that is affiliated with Rice Financial Products Company, a financial services firm. He currently serves on the National Commission on Energy Policy, the University of Texas Law School Foundation Board, the Board of Directors for the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project, Inc. and the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Board of Directors for the Utley Foundation.
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Thomas Freeman
Thomas Freeman – educator and minister – was Barbara Jordan’s debate coach at TSU. At the age of nine, Dr. Thomas F. Freeman entered the ministry. He finished high school at 14 and graduated magna cum laud from college at 18. In 1939, he attended Andover Newton Technological Seminary where he received annual scholarships for outstanding performance. He earned his degree in the area of the Old Testament, then received a fellowship from the University of Chicago where he was the first student to graduate with a Ph.D. in Homiletics.

In 1949, Dr. Freeman accepted a teaching position at Texas Southern University—and in the early ‘60s, he continued his own education, doing post-doctoral work at the University of Vienna, Austria. In 1973, he did inter-institutional study in Africa at the University of Liberia, Lagos, Ghana, and Forbay College.

He has served in numerous roles at TSU, including professor of philosophy; head of the department of philosophy; coach of the TSU debate team; Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Director of the Weekend College; Director of the Model City Training Center; and Director, Potential Unlimited, HUD Youth Involvement Project. Additionally, Dr. Freeman is the minister of Mt. Horem Baptist Church.

Dr. Freeman has been recognized, honored and awarded for his service to education, the ministry, and the community. He received the Doctor of Humane Letters from Eastern Massachusetts University, 1980; American Performance Theatre Award, 1992; Houston Urban League, Margaret Ross Barnett Leadership Award, 1992; TSU’s International Recognition Award, 1992; Martin Luther King Drum Major Award, 1995; and the Educator of the Year Award, l995 from the Black Caucus of the Texas Legislature.

He is also the author of the book The Choice of the Pew and was the editor of the publication, Barbara Jordan Gems.
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Curtis Graves
Curtis Graves was a Texas State Representative and political opponent of Barbara Jordan. Born on August 26, 1938, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Curtis Graves was one of the original civil rights protestors at Texas State University and attended the first Houston sit-in at the lunch counter of Weingarten’s Store on March 4, 1960. He received a B.B.A. from Texas Southern University in 1963, and from 1962-1966, he was the manager of the Standard Savings Association of Houston. When he won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 1966, he became one of two second African-Americans to serve in the Texas state legislature since Reconstruction. During his term in the Texas House of Representatives, he protested against the war in Vietnam and served on a committee to investigate alleged harassment of students at the Gatesville School for Boys.

In 1972, Graves relocated from Houston to Washington, D.C., and became director of Continuing Education with the National Civil Service League. Between 1977 and 1987, he was Chief of the Education and Communications Affairs Board of NASA and Deputy Director of Civil Affairs for the leadership Institute for Communications Development. Graves has been involved with the National Congress of Aerospace Education, is the former President of World Aerospace Education Organization, and serves on the boards of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and the Kentucky Institute. He is the author of a two-volume book entitled, Famous Black Americans.
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Barbara Holmes
Barbara Holmes, Dean of the Memphis Theological Seminary, is a Barbara Jordan scholar. A teacher and lawyer, Barbara Holmes earned her B.A. from the University of Connecticut, and an M.S. from Southern Connecticut University. She also holds a J.D. degree from Mercer University, an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Holmes currently serves as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Memphis Theological Seminary. She is the author of the book A Private Woman in Public Spaces: Barbara Jordan’s Speeches of Ethics, Public Religion, and Law, and lives in Germantown, Tennessee.
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Otis King
Otis King – former Dean of the Texas Southern University Law School – was Barbara Jordan’s high school friend and debate partner at TSU. Otis King was a member of Dr. Thomas Freeman’s debate team at Texas Southern University, along with Barbara Jordan—and, with Curtis Graves, participated in civil rights demonstrations in Houston during the 1960s. He was Houston’s first Black City Attorney and served as Dean of TSU’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He was also the interim president at TSU after the death of president Dr. Robert Terry.
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Bill Lawson
Reverend Bill Lawson was a civil rights pioneer and friend of Barbara Jordan. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised by Watler and Clarisse Lawson Cade in Kansas City, Kansas, Lawson graduated from Sumner High School in 1946. He earned a B.A. in Sociology at Tennessee A &I State University in Nashville and a M.Div. from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City.

After graduation, he served 10 years as director of the Baptist Student Union and Professor of the Bible at Texas Southern University. He was also the director of Upward Bound, a pre-college program for prospective TSU students.

Lawsons’ family established the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in their home in June, 1962. Since then, the church’s congregation has grown to over 5,000 members who are deeply involved in advocacy activities for African Americans, for Hispanics, for women, and for the poor. In 1996, Lawson was honored by the Houston community with the creation of a nonprofit advocacy agency: the William A. Lawson Institute for Peace and Prosperity (WALIPP).

Rev. Lawson is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Howard Payne College in Brownwood, the University of Houston, and Texas Southern University in Houston. He is also the author of a book of meditations called Lawson’s Leaves of Love.
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Bud Myers
Rufus “Bud” Myers was Barbara Jordan’s Congressional Chief of Staff. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, Bud Myers spend nearly three decades as Chief of Staff and Aide to five members of Congress, including Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland of Texas, and Cardiss Collins and Danny Davis, both of Illinois. He also served as minority staff director for the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

Myers was recently appointed as the executive director of the Indianapolis Housing Agency, which is responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, and management of housing for low-income, elderly, and disabled persons.
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Dan Rather
Dan Rather – CBS News reporter – has covered Barbara Jordan extensively throughout their respective careers. Born October 31, 1931, in Wharton, Texas, Dan Rather received a B.S. in journalism from Sam Houston State Teachers College, where he spent the following year as a journalism instructor. He also attended the University of Houston and the South Texas School of Law. Rather’s jourmalism career started in 1950 when he was a reporter with the Associated Press in Huntsville, Texas.

During his 35 years with CBS News, Rather has held many prestigious positions, ranging from co-editor of 60 Minutes to anchor of “CBS Reports” and anchor of the weekend and weeknight editions of the CBS Evening News. He has served as CBS News bureau chief in London and Saigon, and was the White House correspondent during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. Early in his career, he reported on racial conflicts in the South and the crusade of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the assassination of President Kennedy.

In 2002 and 2003, the war on terrorism took him to Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. In February 2003, Rather secured an exclusive one-on-one interview with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, the first time the Iraqi leader had agreed to sit down with an American journalist since 1991.

Rather has received numerous broadcast journalism awards, including multiple Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and citations from critical, scholarly, professional, and charitable organizations. He is the author of The American Dream, Deadlines and Datelines, The Camera Never Blinks Twice: The Further Adventures of a Television Journalist (1994), and other books.
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Ann Richards
Ann Richards – former governor of Texas – was a close friend of Barbara Jordan. Born September 1, 1933, in Lakeview, Texas, Ann Richards earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a teaching certificate from the University of Texas. She taught social studies and history at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin and volunteered for civil rights-focused political campaigns and causes.

In 1976, Richards entered politics when she was elected Travis County Commissioner. Six years later, she was the first woman in fifty years elected to statewide office in Texas when she became the State Treasurer. Re-elected in 1986, she rose to national prominence when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, establishing herself as a feminist, a “real Texan,” and a positive force for African-American and Hispanic issues.

In 1990, Richards was elected Governor of Texas. She is credited with revitalizing the Texas economy, yielding a 2% growth in 1991, when the rest of the U.S. economy shrank. She also streamlined Texas government, reformed the state’s prison system, and advocated the institution of the Texas Lottery as a means to supplement school finances.

From 2001, Richards was a senior adviser with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, a Washington, D.C.-based international law firm. She also sat on the boards of the Aspen Institute, J.C. Penney, and T.I.G. Holdings, and was immortalized on the King of the Hill episode “Hank and the Great Glass Elevator” in which her animated-self dated series character Bill Dauterive. She died on September 14, 2006.
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Mary Beth Rogers
Mary Beth Rogers, LBJ professor and public figure, was Barbara Jordan’s colleague and biographer. Mary Beth Rogers served as Texas deputy treasurer from 1983 to 1988. When Ann Richards ran for governor, Rogers managed the campaign and later became Richard’s Chief of Staff.

She left state government to write Cold Anger: A Story of Faith and Power Politics, which was published in 1990. The book is a biography of community political organizer Ernesto Cortes, one of the nation’s top Hispanic leaders. In 1998, she published Barbara Jordan: An American Hero about her former colleague at the LBJ School for Public Affaris.

Rogers is currently vice chair and chief strategy officer of the board of directors of the KLRU-TV, Austin’s public television station. During her tenure, she has KRLU’s first strategic plan, initiated regular town hall meetings on public issues, and created the KLRU Distinguished Speakers Series. In four years, she increased KRLU’s fundraising by 25 percent.
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Elspeth Rostow
Elspeth Rostow, former Dean of the LBJ School, was hired by Barbara Jordan. Before moving to Texas in 1969, Elspeth Rostow taught at Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence, MIT, Georgetown University, American University, and the University of Cambridge. She served as the Dean of the LBJ School from 1977 to 1983. During the eighties, she was a member of the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations, and the President’s Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties. In 1987, President Reagan appointed her to the Board of the United States Institute of Peace.

A former editorial columnist for the Austin American-Statesman, Rostow has lectured in 34 countries under the Fulbright Program and the United States Information Agency (USIA). She co-founded The Austin Project in 1992 to help ensure that all children have equal opportunities for a healthy childhood and a good education.

Rostow is currently a professor of Government and Stiles Professor Emerita in American Studies at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches courses on the American Presidency and U.S. foreign policy.
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Pat Schroeder
Patricia Schroeder was elected to Congress the same year as Barbara Jordan. Born in Portland, Oregon in 1940, Patricia Schroeder graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 1961. She was one of only 15 women - in a class of more than 500 men - when she went to Harvard Law School. She earned her J.D. in 1964 and moved to Denver, Colorado, where she was elected to the United States House of Representatives. She served for 24 years and left Congress undefeated in 1996.

During her tenure in the House, she was the Dean of Congressional Women and co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues for 10 years. As chair of the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families (from 1991 to 1993), Schroeder worked to bring the Family and Medical Leave Act and the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act to fruition in 1993. She was also active in military issues, expediting the National Security Committee’s vote to allow women to fly combat missions in 1991, and working to improve the lives of military families with the Military Family Act in 1985. In 1988, Schroeder considered running for President and was ranked third in a Time magazine poll before she withdrew from the race for lack of funds.

From January to June 1997, she was a professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, before assuming the post of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in June of that year.

Schroeder is the author of two books: Champion of the Great American Family and 24 Years of House Work…and the Place Is Still a Mess. She is in the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
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Max Sherman
Max Sherman is the former Dean of the LBJ School and was a friend of Barbara Jordan. Max Sherman has a J.D. degree from the The University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in history from Baylor University. He served in the Texas Senate from 1971 to 1977. During his tenure as State Senator, Sherman was recognized by Texas Monthly as one of the ten best legislators based in his integrity, intelligence, and “genuine sense of public service.” In July 1983, he became the Dean of the LBJ School, where he served until September 1997.

He has been a member of the boards of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Leadership Austin, the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO), the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Humanities Texas. He is currenlty the Vice President of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, and has been the President of the Foundation for Insurance Regulatory Studies in Texas since 1991.

Sherman has recieved numerous awards, including the Price Daniel Public Service Award (2005) from Baylor University, Public Administration Educator of the Year (2004) from the Centex Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, Texan of the Year (1999) from the Texas Legislative Conference, and Austinite of the Year (1997) from the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.
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Alan Simpson
Alan Kooi Simpson, former Republican senator, was an admirer of Barbara Jordan and spoke at her memorial. Born in Cody, Wyoming on September 2, 1931, Simpson spent his youth in the Cowboy state, graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science in Law. He joined the Army after graduation and served overseas in the 5th Infantry Division and in the 2nd Armored Division (Hell on Wheels) in the final months of the Army of Occupation in Germany. After his honorable discharge, he returned to the University of Wyoming to earn his Juris Doctorate in 1958.

Simpson began his political career when he was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1964. During his 13 year tenure, he held the offices of Majority Whip, Majority Floor Leader, and Speaker Pro-Tem. Then in 1978, he was elected to the United States Senate, where he served until 1997, acting as Assistant Majority leader from 1984 to 1994.

Simpson is currently a partner in the law firm of Burg Simpson Eldredge and Hersh, and is a consultant for The Tongour-Simpson Group, a Washington D.C. government relations firm. His book Right in the Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping with the Press, is a memoir of his experiences with the media.
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Robert Strauss
Robert Strauss - chairman of the DNC - named Barbara Jordan the DNC keynote speaker in 1976. Born in Lockhart, Texas on September 19, 1918, Robert Strauss was raised in the west Texas town of Stamford. He earned his law degree from the University of Texas and served as a special agent in the FBI after graduation. In 1945, he entered private law practice and founded the firm that became Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld L.L.P.

Strauss was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1972, and he served as chairman of President Carter’s election campaigns in 1976 and 1980. In 1977, Strauss joined President Carter’s Cabinet as a special trade representative; he successfully conducted the Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, which culminated in the Trade Act of 1979. In 1981, Strauss was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award. He served as the last U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1991 and was the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 1991 until 1993.

A lecturer and author, Mr. Strauss speaks in the U.S. and abroad and has authored papers for professional journals, newspapers and magazines. Strauss has occupied the Lloyd Bentsen Chair at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, where he lectured to students of law, business and public affairs. He serves as chairman of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, is a member of the Council on Foreign Affairs, and is a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Charlie Wilson
Charles Wison – Democratic U.S. Congressman from Texas – was both a colleague and friend to Barbara Jordan. Born June 1, 1933, in Trinity, Texas, Charles Wilson graduated from Trinity High School in 1951 and, while a student at Sam Hosuton State University, was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy. He received a B.S. from the Academy in 1956 and served as a lieutenant from 1956 to 1960, when he began his political career.

He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives at the age of 27 and served until 1966, until he was elected to the Texas Senate. Known as the “liberal from Lufkin,” Wilson fought for the regulation of utilities, Medicaid, tax exemptions for the elderly, ERA, and a minimum wage bill. On November 7, 1972, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

While serving as a Representative, Wilson created the first Big Thicket National Preserve, helped the Afghanistan freedom fighters in their war against Russia, and brought more Veteran Affairs services to East Texas. He retired from the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996.
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Andrew Young
Andrew Young – human rights activist and politician – was Barbara Jordan’s colleague in Congress. Born March 12, 1932, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Young graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1951 with a bachelor of science degree in biology. He went on to earn a divinity degree from Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut and accepted the pastorate of Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1955, where he became active in civil rights and voter registration drives.

In 1961, Young began to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Atlanta-based civil rights organization led by Martin Luther King, Jr. He became a trusted aide to King and was instrumental in organizing voter registration and desegregation campaigns in the South. He was with King when the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

In 1972, Young won Georgia’s Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he became the first African American since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from Georgia. Young was named ambassador to the United Nations by Jimmy Carter in 1977, and he helped Carter develop American foreign policy, focusing on human rights and arguing that Third World development was in the best interest of the U.S.

Young returned to Atlanta in 1981 and was elected mayor, an office he served until 1990. Young is currently a professor at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He has published two books, A Way Out of No Way and An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America.
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— Melissa Joulwan