Jean Childs Young

Jean Childs Young was diagnosed with liver cancer in 1991. She later died from the disease at the age of 61 on September 16, 1994 in Atlanta. A celebration of life in her honor was held at the Atlanta Civic Center, attended by thousands of friends, family and admirers. The many tributes to Young at the funeral included a poem read by Maya Angelou, a eulogy spoken by Coretta Scott King, and a personal note from President Bill Clinton. Young had written a memoir titled “What to Remember About Me” that was published postmortem on September 20, 1994.

Young has received numerous awards and honors for the work she has done in advocating for the rights of children, women, and African Americans. In 1989, Young was awarded the NAACP Distinguished Leadership Award for her work. She later received the Y.W.C.A. Women of Achievement Award in 1993, a year before her death. A middle school, the Jean Childs Young Middle School in Atlanta, was named in her honor. Young also received a number of honorary doctorates from Chicago's Loyola University, Manchester College, and New York City College of Technology. Young served on the committee of the Georgia Women of Achievement, an organization that honors women who were born in or resided in Georgia for their achievements and contributions to the state. Young was named their honorary trustee, and was later honored by the state organization in 1983 when she was named their Georgia Democratic Woman of the Year.

While her husband held office as the Mayor of Atlanta, Young continued to advocate for improved education, and took action through the resources available to her as first lady of Atlanta. In 1981, she founded the Atlanta Task Force on Public Education and served on the committee for a number of years. With the help of Young, this education task force greatly increased the funding given to elementary schools in Atlanta for a period of time. Young eventually extended her educational expertise to the digital realm as well, working with the technology company IBM to create “The Illuminated Books and Manuscripts.” This is a resource for analyzing texts digitally that is meant to be used as part of educational curriculum.

In 1978, Young was appointed as chair of the American committee of the UN International Year of the Child by President Jimmy Carter. The International Year of the Child was a program that was funded and supported by the United Nations, and was meant to secure rights and improve the quality of life for children worldwide. Many countries participated in the program internationally. The program came about as a response to the concern that “far too many children, especially in developing countries are undernourished, are without access to adequate health services, are missing the basic educational preparation for their future and are deprived of the elementary amenities of life.” Jimmy Carter claimed to have appointed Young due to her wide expertise in child's rights advocacy and her background in education.

Young was also actively involved in government, and ran campaigns geared towards those underrepresented in politics. In 1970, she founded “Women for Andrew Young:” a campaign aimed at women that promised her husband's support of women's issues should he win the position of mayor of Atlanta. Along with her direct involvement in government during her husband's tenure as mayor, Young actively participated in organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Georgia, which promoted the women's involvement in voting and the political system in general. Beyond this, the League advocated for fair government in Georgia that promoted equality. The League also had connections to education, as it advocated for equal opportunities and access to equal education for all students. This was a cause that Young had dedicated much effort towards in her lifetime.

Moreover, Young also participated in some of the most famous marches of the Civil Rights Movement, including the march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery which began on March 21, 1965. Young decided, in spite of her husband's initial concerns, to attend the march and bring her two daughters, Andrea and Lisa, with her. The famous march drew mass media attention and contributed to establishing the Voting Rights Act later that year.

The couple later moved to New York City, which hindered their direct involvement in the movement for some time. Yet when Young and Andrew witnessed the Nashville Sit-Ins of 1960, they felt compelled to return to the South, moving back to Atlanta and becoming more involved in the movement than ever. Both Young and Andrew believed in the power of the youth to create change, and were inspired by the Sit-Ins partly because of the high youth involvement in the boycotts, protests, and marches in Nashville. Upon their return to the south, Andrew began his work alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Although he initially denied Martin's request that he work for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Andrew joined a few years later, in 1964. Young had gone to the same high school as Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and the two later became good friends as their husbands continued their work in the movement together. According to Young, the work that he and Martin did would not have been possible if it weren't for the support of the women they married.

Young, alongside her husband, Andrew, contributed much of her life to the Civil Rights Movement. Both Young and Andrew felt that their participation in the movement was consistent with their beliefs and values as those involved in ministry. Andrew was specifically influenced by the nonviolent resistance taught by Gandhi, and Young had also been influenced by similar nonviolent and pacifist beliefs while studying at Manchester College. Her background in education— specifically in regards to creating curriculum for public schools— carried over to her work in Civil Rights, as she created curriculum for “the Citizenship Schools of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.” She also aided her husband in his attempt to secure voters rights for African Americans, including during the Thomasville rallies. In 1956, the couple worked to organize a voter registration rally in Thomasville, Georgia— one of their first involvements in the Civil Rights Movement. They were inspired by the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed segregation, and felt that they could make a substantial impact through such rallies. Despite initially meeting resistance from the Ku Klux Klan, the 1965 voter registration rally was successfully carried out at a local high school in Thomasville.

Jean Childs Young met Andrew Young in the summer of 1952. He had come to Marion, Alabama to be a pastor for a small church in the area. Upon his arrival, he had no place to stay and was assigned to lodge at the Childs’ house for a week. Childs met Andrew during his stay at her house, and the two developed a relationship over the course of that summer. In the fall, Childs returned to Manchester College, where she was working towards a bachelor's degree in education, and the two kept in touch via letters. Young proposed to Childs in December 1953, and they were married in Marion on June 7, 1954.

Young initially taught elementary school in Thomasville, Georgia. After moving with her husband to Hartford, Connecticut in the early-1950s so that he could earn a divinity degree from Hartford Seminary, she began teaching at Arsenal primary school. The couple later moved back to Georgia, where Young taught at two elementary schools in Atlanta. During her time teaching in Atlanta, Young became a coordinator of curriculum for elementary public schools in the area. Young also participated in educational advocacy and programs beyond the scope of the classroom. Along with being a dedicated elementary school teacher, Young also participated in the Teacher Corps program, one of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs that served as a means of enhancing education in impoverished or low-income areas of the United States. In 1970, she wrote a parental guide titled “Bridging the Gap: Home and School” to encourage parents of students to incorporate education from the classroom into life at home as well. Young was involved in higher education as well. She was one of the developers of Atlanta Metropolitan State College, and served there as a public relations officer as well as an advisor for a number of years after the school's establishment.

Jean Childs Young (July 1, 1933 – September 16, 1994) was an educator and advocate for equal access to education in the United States. Young also dedicated much of her life to involvement in children's rights, and served as the American chairwoman of the United Nation's International Year of the Child in 1979. Young worked alongside her husband, Andrew Young, as an involved advocate in the Civil Rights Movement.

Jean Childs Young was born on July 1, 1933 in Marion, Alabama. Her father, Norman Lorenzo Childs, worked at a family-owned grocery store and bakery in Marion, sometimes traveling around Alabama to sell the store's homemade peanut brittle during the Great Depression. Her mother, Idella Jones Childs, was an elementary school teacher. Young had four siblings. She spent her childhood and early adulthood in Marion, attending Lincoln Normal School, and later attended Manchester College in Indiana, where she received her bachelor's degree in education in 1954.