Whitney Young

Whitney Young (born July 31, 1921, Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, U.S.—died March 11, 1971, Lagos, Nigeria) was an American civil rights leader who, as head of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971, spearheaded the drive for equal opportunity for Black people in U.S. industry and government service. Through his advocacy of a “Domestic Marshall Plan”—providing significant financial aid to help solve America’s racial problems, in the same manner that massive spending under the Marshall Plan helped European countries recover after World War II—he strongly influenced federal poverty programs sponsored by the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1960s.

After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Young switched his career interest from medicine to social work. He earned an M.A. in social work from the University of Minnesota in 1947. He was director of industrial relations for the Urban League chapter in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1947 to 1950, and from 1950 to 1954 he was executive secretary of the organization’s chapter in Omaha, Nebraska. Young became dean of Atlanta University’s School of Social Work in 1954, and he was instrumental in improving relations between the city of Atlanta and the university. (The university renamed its School of Social Work for Young in 2000.)

Named executive director of the Urban League in 1961, Young became known as an influential Black activist who helped bridge the gap between white political and business leaders and disadvantaged Black Americans and those advocating for their rights. He became one of the major Black leaders of the American civil rights movement. Under his direction the Urban League grew from 60 to 98 chapters and shifted its focus from middle-class concerns to the needs of the urban poor. He almost single-handedly persuaded corporate America and major foundations to aid the civil rights movement through financial contributions in support of self-help programs for jobs, housing, education, and family rehabilitation.

In August 1963 Young spoke at the March on Washington, where he exhorted the crowd to do more than attend that day’s events:

For the true test of the rededication and the commitment which should flow from this meeting will be in recognition that however impressed or however incensed our Congressional representatives are by this demonstration, they will not act because of it alone. We must support the strong. We must give courage to the timid. We must remind the indifferent, and we must warn the opposed. Civil rights, which are God-given and constitutionally guaranteed, are not negotiable in 1963.

Young, who was a consultant to both Kennedy and Johnson, died unexpectedly while attending a conference in Lagos, Nigeria.