Document Type
Article
Publication Date
May 1998
Recommended Citation
Young, Andrew, "80th Commencement Address" (1998). Commencement Addresses. 2.
https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/commence/2
COinS
The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.
Comments
Andrew Young, a former ambassador, human rights activist and author, delivered the 1998 Commencement address on May 23. Young served three terms as the U.S. representative from the Fifth Congressional District in Atlanta. In 1977, President Carter named him ambassador to the United Nations. He later was mayor of Atlanta from 1981 to 1989 and co-chair of the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games. Born in New Orleans, he received a B.S. from Howard University and a B.D. from Hartford Theological Seminary. In the southwestern Georgia town of Thomasville, Young was pastor in two small congregational churches, a role which led him into the civil rights movement. He was a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and vice president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Young now serves on the board of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. He is co-chair of GoodWorks International, a specialty consulting group in Atlanta that provides strategic service to corporations and governments operating in the global economy, and chairman of the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund, a privately-managed $100 million fund providing equity to businesses in 11 countries in Southern Africa. The author of A Way Out of No Way and An Easy Burden, he is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Legion d'Honneur and many other honors. Connecticut College awarded Young the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.