Andrew J. Young To Speak during MLK Legacy Week at W&L

Andrew Young

News Contact:

Julie Cline
News Writer
jcline@wlu.edu
540-458-8954

Lexington, Virginia • January 5, 2011

Andrew J. Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will speak at Washington and Lee University on Wednesday, Jan. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel.

Young's talk, titled "A Call to Serve," as well as other activities during Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Week, are free and open to the public.

Young has served as mayor of Atlanta, as a pastor, as Congressman from the 5th District of Georgia, and as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. He also served as president of the National Council of Churches USA, was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and was a supporter and friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Young is the author of more than five books, including "An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America" (1998); "Andrew Young, Remembrance & Homage" (1978); and "The History of the Civil Rights Movement" (1990). Young received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, the highest civilian award in the U.S., and France's Legion d'honneur.

He has received more than 45 honorary degrees including awards from Dartmouth, Yale, Notre Dame, Clark Atlanta, Emory and the University of Georgia. He received his B.S. degree from Howard University and a B.Div. degree from Hartford Seminary.

W&L is celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a week of activities highlighting diversity and inclusion from Sunday, Jan. 16 to Saturday, Jan. 22. The activities include:

• Sunday, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m. in the Stackhouse Theater in the University Commons, members of the W&L and Lexington communities will reflect on the life of Dr. King.
• Monday, Jan. 17, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Rockbridge County and area children are invited to a Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Party in the Commons. The birthday party will include pizza, ice cream, games and face painting.
• Wednesday, Jan. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel, Andrew Young, the first African-American Ambassador to the United Nations, will give a talk.
• Thursday, Jan. 20, from 12:20-1:50 p.m. in Elrod Commons 345, there will be a panel discussion about President Barack Obama's July 17, 2009, speech to the NAACP. Panelists include Professors Molly Michelmore (history), Lucas Morel (politics), Doug Cumming (journalism), Tim Diette (economics), W&L senior Devin Cooper from Georgia and moderator Professor Marc Conner (English).
• Saturday, Jan. 22, from 8-9:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Lexington, the MLK Week of Activities will conclude with a joyous concert of celebration including a reading of the speech "I Have a Dream," audience sing-alongs, and performances by the W&L Chamber Singers, Cantatrici, the Men's Glee Club and the Joyful Noise Gospel Choir.