civil rights activist, politician, and ambassador. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was the son of Andrew Jackson Young Sr., a dentist, and Daisy Fuller Young, a schoolteacher. With his younger brother Walter, Andrew and his parents lived in an upper-middle-class neighborhood with white families. In the fifth grade Young's civics teacher took the class to observe Thurgood Marshall arguing a legal case, and this experience inspired Young. He graduated early from a private high school in 1947. He entered Howard University that same year, participating on both the track and the swimming teams and planning to become a dentist. In 1951 he earned his biology degree from Howard.
That summer after graduating, Young felt called to become a preacher instead of a dentist. So he entered divinity school at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. Receiving his bachelor of divinity degree in 1955 ...
