Andrew Young

From Philosopedia

Andrew Young (12 March 1932 - )

Young, the son of dentist Andrew Jackson Young Sr. and school teacher Daisy Fuller Young, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

After attending Gilbert Academy in New Orleans and Dillard University, in 1947 he transferred to Howard University in Washington, D.C., earning his Bachelor of Science in pre-dentistry in 1951. He earned a divinity degree from Hartford Theological Seminary in 1955.

First married to Jean Childs. who died of cancer in 1994, he has been married to Carolyn Young since 1996.

Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies lists him as a dean and provides the following biography:

The Honorable Andrew Young is chairman of Atlanta-based GoodWorks International, a specialty consulting group that provides strategic services to corporations and governments operating in the global economy. He serves as a public affairs professor of policy studies at Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Young also is a member of the boards of directors of numerous businesses and organizations, including Delta Air Lines, Argus, Host Marriott Corp., Archer Daniels Midland, Cox Communications and Thomas Nelson Publishing.

He served as president of the National Council of Churches in 2000-2001, and was appointed by the Secretary of Defense as a member of the National Security Study Group.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Young as chairman of the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund, a $100 million privately managed fund to provide equity to businesses in 11 countries.

Young has published two books, A Way Out of No Way (Thomas Nelson Publishing) and An Easy Burden (Harper Collins). His awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Legion d’Honneur, and more than 45 honorary degrees from such universities as Yale, Notre Dame, Emory, and the University of Georgia.

Young is an ordained minister, international businessman, sports enthusiast, human rights activist, published author and former public servant. He was elected to three terms in the United States House of Representatives from the Fifth Congressional District of Georgia, and, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter named him Ambassador to the United Nations. He served two terms as mayor of Atlanta and was co-chairman of the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996.

A top aide to Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, Young was involved in the movement's inception and served as vice president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He presently serves on the board of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.

A father of four, Young lives in Atlanta with his wife, Carolyn.

According to an interview in Los Angeles Sentinel (17 August 2006) while he was a Walmart spokesman, Young made the following comments regarding mom-and-pop shopkeepers:

• But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables, and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs.

After the remarks were made public Young resigned from Walmart.

In 2009, Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of his friend one-time Democratic presidential candidate and North Carolina Senator John Edwards, threatened to divorce her husband of 32 years because she had read portions of former campaign aide Young, whom journalists reported was claiming to be the father of Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter's child. "What really pushed her over the edge is Young's allegation that John had other affairs with women on the campaign trail," according to one journalist. "Elizabeth basically told John that if she found out that was true, she'd have to divorce him because then he'd be a 'serial cheater'."

"John claims Young's book is a pack of lies."