Writer shares story of civil rights movement with UCLA

Thursday, November 7, 1996

AUTHOR:

Experiences, memoirs of Andrew Young told in his bookBy Kathryn
Combs

Daily Bruin Contributor

"I keep hearing young people tell me ‘I don’t know why we can’t
be united and make things happen now like you all did in the ’60s
…"

Andrew Young responds to such comments by reaching out to
university students and sharing with them his personal experiences
and insight on the civil rights movement.

The author of a recent book and elder statesman of the civil
rights movement, Young will speak to UCLA students Friday at UCLA’s
Bookzone.

In his book, "An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement &
the Transformation of America," Young gives the history of the
civil rights movement through his eyes. Having played a key role
both as policy maker and protester, he relates his and Martin
Luther King Jr.’s experiences in the civil rights movement of the
1960s to the contemporary struggle for equality.

"There’s a wide-spread feeling that issues don’t have the moral
clarity they did then. There was no moral clarity until we made it
clear," said Young in an interview with the Atlanta Constitution
last month.

Young has an extensive background in policy making and has
served his community in various ways throughout his career. In the
1960s, he was the executive director of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization founded
by King. He later became a congressman, U. S. ambassador to the
United Nations and mayor of Atlanta, Ga.

In "An Easy Burden," Young waxes sentimental about his personal
experiences with King. "It’s important to understand that social
change is never easy, that it was difficult for Martin Luther King
and that it was never popular when he was alive," Young told the
Atlanta Constitution. "None of this would have happened without him
… At the happiest times in my life, whatever successes I’ve
enjoyed, I could never forget that I was able to enjoy them because
he gave his life," he continued.

In his book, Young tackles subjects as controversial as the
relationship between King and the Kennedy and Johnson
administrations, and the extent of FBI harassment of King and
others involved with the SCLC.

"Here is someone from United States history … The book is a
great blend of history and memoirs. His point of view personalizes
a part of American history," said Richard MacBriar, book buyer for
the Bookzone.

"He was there at very important moments of this country’s
history … I would think this would be of great interest," he
added.

Moderating Young’s visit to the Bookzone, which will include
both discussion and a question-and-answer session, is Claudia
Mitchell-Kernan, the vice chancellor of Academic Affairs and dean
of the Graduate Division at UCLA. "He has had an extraordinary
reputation as a bridge builder, a healer, and the book that is
coming is one which gives an insider’s view of many events in the
civil rights movement," said Mitchell-Kernan.

Young brings his considerable experience in civil rights to UCLA
at a time when controversial issues such as affirmative action have
brought to light the need for renewed student compromise and unity.
"It is an occasion, I think, partly significant in terms of some of
the things happening in California … with the passage of 209 and
the not to long ago Proposition 187 … we would hope that we could
work together in California to make an inclusive community," she
added.

Published by Harper-Collins publishing Co., "An Easy Burden" hit
bookstore shelves on Nov. 6.

Harper Collins Publishing

Author Andrew Young will speak at UCLA on Friday.