On July 3, 2009, James A. Young became the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, Miss., a small city forever linked with the murders of three Civil Rights workers in 1964. Young brings his story to Vanderbilt University Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. at Sarratt Cinema.
Young’s talk “Progress Starts Now – Building a New Legacy in the Old South,” is free and open to the public. He will discuss his role in history and the current and past state of racial conflicts in the state of Mississippi, as well as the roles of minorities in the political process and in today’s society.
During the Civil Rights era, Mississippi was known for its bitter racism, discrimination and strong opposition to the voter registration protests by its African American residents. The small city of Philadelphia is known for one of the most memorable crimes of the Civil Rights Movement when in 1964, three civil rights activists – James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner – were killed by Ku Klux Klan members while the three were attempting to register people to vote.
Young, 53, was born in rural Neshoba County and moved to Philadelphia, the county seat, as a small child in the early 1960s with his parents and three brothers and three sisters.
As a young man he was laid off at the local U.S. Motors plant and eventually landed a job as a housekeeper at Neshoba County General Hospital, where then hospital administrator Robert Turcotte Sr. saw Young’s potential and sent him to school to train as an emergency medical technician. He became the county’s first EMT and later an EMT-paramedic, leading the county ambulance service for nearly 20 years. Under Young’s leadership, the ambulance service rose to become one of the top five in the state and the first rural service to provide paramedic care.
Young served nearly four terms as a District 5 supervisor in Philadelphia before he was defeated in 2007. He is also pastor of a Pentecostal church in Louisville, Miss., and has served in this role for the past 18 years.
Young’s lecture, presented as part of the North Star Leadership Series, is sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Office of Leadership Development and Intercultural Affairs in conjunction with the university’s Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center and Office of Active Citizenship and Service.
Media Contact: Princine Lewis, (615) 322-NEWS
princine.lewis@vanderbilt.edu