Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young Jr.

By Dennis C. Dickerson

Book Overview

During the turbulent 1960s, civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. devised a new and effective strategy to achieve equality for African Americans. Young blended interracial mediation with direct protest, demonstrating that these methods pursued together were the best tactics for achieving social, economic, and political change. Militant Mediator is a powerful reassessment of this key and controversial figure in the civil rights movement. It is the first biography to explore in depth the influence Young's father, a civil rights leader in Kentucky, had on his son. Dickerson traces Young's swift rise to national prominence as a leader who could bridge the concerns of deprived blacks and powerful whites and mobilize the resources of the white America to battle the poverty and discrimination at the core of racial inequality. Alone among his civil rights colleagues -- Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, John Lewis, and James Forman -- Young built support from black and white constituencies. As a National Urban League official in the Midwest and as a dean of the School of Social Work at Atlanta University during the 1940s and 1950s, Young developed a strategy of mediation and put it to work on a national level upon becoming the executive director of the League in 1961. Though he worked with powerful whites, Young also drew support from middle-and working-class blacks from religious, fraternal, civil rights, and educational organizations. As he navigated this middle ground, though, Young came under fire from both black nationalists and white conservatives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813190819
• ISBN13: 9780813190815
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.6" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Worth Reading, but it Drags

Whitney Young was a very effective leader in the fight for equal rights for everyone. He was effective both in fund-raising and in resolving conflicts. He learned to speak the language of the whites he had to deal with, so that they preferred to deal with him rather than with more militant black leaders who were unable or unwilling to speak to whites in terms whites were used to. He had the knack of knowing how far he could push whites toward fairness to blacks without getting their backs up, but never taking a straight "no" for an answer. He would accept less than what he really wanted, but always more than the other side really wanted to give. He made good use of the fact that prejudiced whites would generally prefer to compromise with him rather than deal with the more confrontational black leaders. Dickerson recounts Young's life from birth to death. It is a story well worth reading, of a brilliant and dedicated person who made a substantial contribution to the progress of racial relations, and whose methods future leaders could do well to study and emulate. Unfortunately, the narrative drags at times. Young brought to each new challenge the same impressive list of strengths; enumerating them yet again eventually becomes tiresome. watziznaym@gmail.com