Andrew Young Visits Prairie View |
By Ryan J. Rudd – Black College Wire | |
Andrew Young, a former U.S. Ambassador and civil rights activist stressed the importance of voting, provided encouragement and reflected on his civil rights experience during a lecture at Prairie View A&M University. “Since the Obama administration has lost Congress, they (the majority) will try to repeal the good that he has done,” he said to Students Participating in Transcending Knowledge. “We have to learn some economics because they have changed the game from a political game to a game of economics.” He also gave an overview of the Martin Luther King Jr. monument, which is scheduled to be unveiled Aug. 28 on Washington D.C.’s National Mall, by the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. The New Orleans native noted that his experiences as an aide to King during the civil rights movement shaped his role as a congressman as he focused on issues of poverty, war and racism. His election to the House of Representatives in 1972 marked the first time an African-American from Georgia had been elected since Reconstruction. “When I ran for election, I wasn’t trying to be important or use my status to get elected to another position,” Young said. “When I went to Congress, I was trying to do something about poverty, the issue Dr. King addressed in Washington, and was eventually assassinated over.” Young noted that his visit to Prairie View was long overdue. He said he has known about the university since his years as a student at Dillard University before transferring to Howard, when the two schools’ athletic programs used to compete frequently. Ryan Rudd writes for the Panther, the Prairie View A&M University student newspaper, which originally published this article. |
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Posted Apr. 12, 2011 |
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