Civil Rights Leader Andrew Young to Visit Buffalo State August 10
Andrew Young Jr., former U.S. congressman, United Nations ambassador, civil rights leader, and mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, will share his wisdom with approximately 90 Buffalo high school students, Thursday, August 10, at a 7:00 p.m. banquet in Buffalo State’s Campbell Student Union Social Hall.
The students, who attend three high-needs city high schools, just completed the academically focused Upward Bound program, one of eight federal TRIO programs created for disadvantaged students.
“I’m so thrilled to be able to welcome Andrew Young to campus. He’s a champion for the disadvantaged,” said Don Patterson, Buffalo State’s Upward Bound director. “He marched next to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and worked in the South to register blacks to vote. Now, we’re trying to level the playing field when it comes to educational opportunities. Education is the new civil right.”
During the banquet, Buffalo State will honor the 85-year-old Young by presenting him with the 2017 Hal Payne Educational Opportunity Lifetime Service Award.
“This is our way of thanking Ambassador Young for all he’s done to make this a better world,” Patterson said. “We can’t even begin to measure his impact.”
Since 1986, Buffalo State’s Upward Bound program has served ninth through 12th graders, primarily from Lafayette, McKinley, and East high schools, during a six-week summer residence on campus as well as an afterschool program. In the summer, participants study academic subjects with Buffalo Public School teachers and prepare for the following school year.
“We know that that the program works,” Patterson said.
An impressive 90 percent of Upward Bound participants enroll in college after high school, including several who attend Buffalo State.
About Andrew Young Jr.
Born on March 12, 1932, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Young was a pastor who became active in the Civil Rights movement, working with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1981, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.