An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America

by Andrew Young, Quincy Jones (Foreword)

Andrew Young is one of the most important figures of the U.S. civil rights movement and one of America's best-known African American leaders. Working closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he endured beatings and arrests while participating in seminal civil rights campaigns. In 1964, he became Executive Director of the SCLC, serving with King during a time of great accomplishment and turmoil. In describing his life through his election to Congress in 1972, this memoir provides revelatory, riveting reading. Young's analysis of the connection between racism, poverty, and a militarized economy will resonate with particular relevance for readers today.

Genres: History, Autobiography, Memoir, African American, Nonfiction, Biography, Southern

582 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

American civil rights leader and politician Andrew Jackson Young, Junior, served as executive director of the southern Christian leadership conference from 1964 to 1970, later as ambassador of United States to the United Nations from 1977 to 1979, and as mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990.

This diplomat, and activist began his career as a pastor in an early movement as a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A "behind the scenes" look back at the Civil Rights struggle. A few interesting revelations along the way.

Two conclusions I reached:

1. The importance of religion. There's no getting around it, religious leaders took the lead. However, I do believe that religion is now a burden of a different kind for people of color in America. It keeps its members involved in superstition. And it continues to make them believe in another world that will provide them with what this world hasn't.

2. America has failed its poor people. Big time.

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book the author provides us with an inside view of the Civil Rights movement from the early 1960’s to the tragic death of Martin Luther King in 1968. Andrew Young joined SCLC in 1961 and the bulk of the book deals this period; don’t look for observations on the Freedom Rides for instance, because the author was not involved with this.

The book is well written and sprinkled with some good humour now and then. We are given many insights on how SCLC struggled within itself and with companion groups like SNCC. Mr. Young paints himself as a rationalist and pragmatist – he was certainly not a firebrand and was not comfortable with an activist stance such as participating in demonstrations and marches. He gives us a behind the scene perspective as to how decisions and activities came to be decided – and in many cases how events took on a life of their own and the momentum had to be followed and improvised. For example, in many cases Martin Luther King was asked to be a guest speaker and after was asked to participate, without any pre-planning, in protest marches in the following days. This is what happened in the Albany protests which the author describes in detail; where one speech became many months of engrossing marches and demonstrations.

Mr. Young makes clear that many in the movement (including himself) were exhausted and approaching burn-out. There were simply too many unpredictable and random demands. Mr Young spent little time with his growing family. Martin Luther King would go on with very little sleep. Resources were stretched to the limit and as depicted in the book, tempers flared sometimes. Even though they were striving for racial equality, Mr. Young acknowledges that the movement itself had little regard for the role of women.

In historical retrospect, as Mr. Young points out, the Civil Rights movement pushed the concept of human rights to the forefront of America’s vision of itself and the wider world. Martin Luther King endeavoured to uplift the spiritual and human values of his country. With the United States redressing itself on the treatment of its minority groups this gave a lasting legacy of what constitutes democratic society. As Mr. Young elucidates towards the end of his book, poverty is still a massive issue in the United States. Little is being done to relieve this recurring cycle of impoverishment and large segments of society are being abandoned.

This is a major work that contributes to our understanding of this important era. My favourite quote from Martin Luther King (page 429 of my book): “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

[Charlie Bone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reveals details of the movement as only an insider can. Young's own considerable education means he has a perspective that sees differently into the politics within the move,net. He lays open issues related to background, class, education, religion with particular clarity. His own background as a Congregationalist lends a fresh perspective to how the baptist preachers who inspired the movement operated. For a white guy like me who came of age during this time, with an intense interest in the movement, this account is inspirational, inspiring, and above all, an education into itself.

[Glen Gersmehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best accounts by an insider -- Young was often the person who set up speeches and organized nonviolent actions for King, and was also an effective, inspiring leader in his own right

[Michael Snodgrass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this twenty years ago and it still resonates when ever it comes to mind. I have thought of it more through the last four years than anytime previous since reading it two decades ago. Andrew Young gives you through his experiences and those he observed a true idea of the unimaginable bravery it took to facedown and engage the Bull Conners of the South.

[Aryonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gives me a whole new idea on what he has gone through.People now with no knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement scoff and think it is stupid,but if you dig down really deep you would finally understand this book is making history

[Andrew Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

MLK, Jr.'s right-hand in the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement. Young later became the first Black Ambassador to the United Nations and Mayor of Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. A truly incredible life, written incredibly well by Young himself.

[John Kissell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful story, wonderfully told. When Young writes about his personal life, it is at its best -- deeply moving.

[J Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible journey of the civil rights movement! Andrew Young is a great man of our times!

[Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book with vivid insight into the times it represents.