Item: i113038


Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Franklin Mint ANCS Series – Whitney Moore Young, Jr.
1971 Proof Silver Medal 39mm (26.48 grams) Sterling Silver
Reference: Franklin Mint 0581 | Sculptor: Ernest Lauser
WHITNEY MOORE YOUNG, JR. EL 1921 1971, Whitney facing 1/2 left.
HE BRIDGED THE GAP BETWEEN MINORITIES AND THE MAINSTREAM =, Mass of people gathered, equality within circle.
Edge Lettering:
STERLING 71 P 0851

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Whitney Moore Young Jr. (July 31, 1921 – March 11, 1971) was an American civil rights leader. Trained as a social worker, he spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively worked for equitable access to socioeconomic opportunity for the historically disenfranchised.

In 1961, at age 40, Young became executive director of the National Urban League. He was unanimously selected by the National Urban League’s Board of Directors, succeeding Lester Granger on October 1, 1961. Within four years he expanded the organization from 38 employees to 1,600 employees; and from an annual budget of $325,000 to one of $6,100,000. Young served as President of the Urban League until his death in 1971.

The Urban League had traditionally been a cautious and moderate organization with many white members. During Young’s ten-year tenure at the League, he brought the organization to the forefront of the American Civil Rights Movement. He both greatly expanded its mission and kept the support of influential white business and political leaders. In a 1964 interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro? and archived at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Young expressed the mission of the Urban League not as ground-level activism in itself but as the supplement and complement of the activities of all other organizations; he states, “we are the social engineers, we are the strategists, we are the planners, we are the people who work at the level of policy-making, policy implementation, the highest echelons of the corporate community, the highest echelons of the governmental community – both at the federal, state and local level – the highest echelons of the labor movement.” As part of the League’s new mission, Young initiated programs like “Street Academy”, an alternative education system to prepare high school dropouts for college, and “New Thrust”, an effort to help local black leaders identify and solve community problems.

Young also pushed for federal aid to cities, proposing a domestic “Marshall Plan”. This plan, which called for $145 billion in spending over 10 years, was partially incorporated into President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. Young described his proposals for integration, social programs, and affirmative action in his two books, To Be Equal (1964) and Beyond Racism (1969).

As executive director of the League, Young pushed major corporations to hire more blacks. In doing so, he fostered close relationships with CEOs such as Henry Ford II, leading some blacks to charge that Young had sold out to the white establishment. Young denied these charges and stressed the importance of working within the system to effect change. Still, Young was not afraid to take a bold stand in favor of civil rights. For instance, in 1963, Young was one of the organizers of the March on Washington despite the opposition of many white business leaders.

Despite his reluctance to enter politics himself, Young was an important advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. In 1968, representatives of President-elect Richard Nixon tried to interest Young in a Cabinet post, but Young refused, believing that he could accomplish more through the Urban League.

Young had a particularly close relationship with President Johnson, and in 1969, Johnson honored Young with the highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Young, in turn, was impressed by Johnson’s commitment to civil rights.

Despite their close personal relationship, Young was frustrated by Johnson’s attempts to use him to balance Martin Luther King’s opposition to the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War. Young publicly supported Johnson’s war policy, but came to oppose the war after the end of Johnson’s presidency.

In 1968, as part of an FBI organized COINTELPRO operation against the Black liberation movement, Herman B. Ferguson and Arthur Harris were convicted of conspiring to murder Young. The police infiltrators who concocted this frame-up portrayed it as a “Black revolutionary plot.” The trial took place in the New York State Supreme Court, with Justice Paul Balsam presiding.

In 1968, Young was invited to address the American Institute of Architects National Convention in Portland, Oregon through the keynote speech. At the time, Young was the executive director of the National Urban League and had spoken before on the concerns of the AIA regarding social and racial inequality in housing and cities. In his speech, he addressed the institute’s silent stance on the turmoil in the country and urged them to stand up and endorse the efforts of John F. Kennedy & Martin Luther King Jr. in their actions. In response to Young’s words, the Institute created two separate resolutions to advance the organizations initiative for diversity and social equality: one created a scholarship program, the AIA/Architects Foundation Diversity Advancement Scholarship, specifically for minorities who wanted to study architecture and another called architects to be actively engaged in the current social issues. To address the lack of diversity in the profession, the AIA revised their Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to ban discrimination based on sex, race or religion and was expanded in subsequent years to include place of origin, disabled status and sexual orientation or gender identity. The institute also created a Whitney M. Young Jr. Award for those that embodies the social principles of equity and justice that Young fought for.

Along with that, “community design” emerged as an initiative for architects to engage with people in urban projects, instead of working exclusively alone. Young’s speech served as a driver for those that were previously frustrated with architecture and urban design. The AIA then started the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team Program and Center for Communities by Design as programs that work for community development and include community members in the design process.

Young served as President of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), from 1969 to 1971. He took office at a time of fiscal instability in the association and uncertainty about President Nixon’s continuing commitment to the “War on Poverty” and to ending the war in Vietnam. At the 1969 NASW Delegate Assembly Young stated,

In his eulogy, Nixon stated that Young’s legacy was that “he knew how to accomplish what other people were merely for”. Young’s work was considered instrumental in breaking down the barriers of segregation and inequality that held back African Americans.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km²), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km²). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.

Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.