Archives and Publics: Andrew J. Young + Photograph Identification

The Andrew J. Young Papers contain nearly 40,000 photographs and slides that document Young’s family, life, and work spanning more than 50 years. There are photos of Young, his children, and his grandchildren as babies; his first ministerial post in the mid-1950s through weddings he performed in the 1990s; the SCLC Citizenship School through his GoodWorks activities; his first Congressional campaign in 1970 through his 1990 gubernatorial campaign; his Ambassadorial trips across the globe through bidding for the Olympics through tropical vacations; and everything in between.  (Below: Ambassador Andrew Young is pictured in his Waldorf-Astoria residence, late 1970s.)

Many prominent people appear in the photographs, including Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, RUN-DMC, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Hank and Billye Aaron, Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, Garth Brooks, Harry Belafonte, Cornel West, Muhammad Ali, George Bush Jr. and Sr., Bill and Hillary Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Billy Graham, Rosa Parks, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Ted Turner and Jane Fonda. There are also many prominent Atlantans, such as Shirley Franklin, Sue Ross, Julian Bond, Hosea Williams, Jesse Hill, Joseph Lowery, Ralph Abernathy, Marvin Arrington, Zell Miller, Benjamin E. Mays, Bernard Scott Lee, Bill Campbell, and Maynard Jackson. (Below: Andrew Young, seated, identifies photographs for project staff, pictured left to right, Brenda Tindal, Mike Kaiser, and Cheryl Oestreicher.)

While the majority of the photographs were labeled or identifiable, many were not. On Tuesday, Andrew Young and his daughter Andrea visited the archives and helped identify the people, places, and events. Their assistance was invaluable as it not only helps us to organize the images, but will ease researchers’ use of the collection. As we documented what they said, we listened to their reminiscences about the people, the places, the events, and their lives. (Below: Pictured left to right are Mike Kaiser, Cheryl Oestreicher, and Andrew Young.)

Near the end of his time in the archives, he reflected, “We’ve really had a good life.”

For more information about the grant-funded project to process the Young papers and other civil rights related collections, see the CLIR Hidden Collections Grant blog.

Posted by Cheryl Oestreicher, Project Archivist

[The Andrew J. Young Papers at AARL are closed for processing and expect to be open in March 2011]