Sammy Young Jr.: The First Black College Student to Die in the Black Liberation Movement

by James Forman

Even as a child, Sammy Younge, Jr. saw the struggle for equal rights as a personal challenge. A political science student at prestigious Tuskegee Institute, he became a leader in the student Civil Rights Movement. Demonstrations were touched off on January 4, 1966 when it became known that Sammy, age 21, had been shot and killed by a gas station attendant. James Forman knew Sammy personally, and tells the young martyr's story through interviews with family and friends.

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

James Forman (October 4, 1928 – January 10, 2005) was a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. He was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. As the executive secretary of SNCC from 1961 to 1966, Forman played a significant role in the freedom rides, the Albany movement, the Birmingham campaign, and the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more things change, the more they stay the same, sadly. Many elements of this true story could be told today.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this account, drawn from the people who knew Younge closest, author included, is the behind-the scenes picture of the civil rights movement of that era. MLK and other activists in it have been sanctified and smoothed out for easy consumption, but during the time there were frequent internal disagreements, including with MLK, and the movement was often unpopular even with African-Americans. Lesson being - if you wait around for for everyone to agree with you, change will never come.

[Benjamin Lettuce Treuhaft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1968 shortly after a gas station owner gunned down Forrman's co-shit kicker Younge for using whites-only toilet, this chapter in the history of black power, written by one of the movement's most brilliant intellectual authors, has lots of political commentary along the way.