Civil Rights, the Sequel

Civil Rights, the Sequel
The New York Times
July 7, 2003
By BOB HERBERT

It’s been more than 30 years since Whitney Young Jr. died and his name is no longer particularly well known, which is a shame.

Mr. Young was the executive director of the National Urban League and one of the big four civil rights leaders of the 1960’s, along with Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins and James Farmer.

He drowned at the absurdly young age of 49 during a visit to Nigeria in 1971. More than 6,000 people attended his funeral at Manhattan’s Riverside Church, and thousands more lined the streets of Harlem to view the funeral procession. Mr. Young had been a giant in the movement and it was widely recognized that his death represented a terrible loss.