Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (1932- ) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Andrew Jackson Young, Sr. (1896-1980) and Daisy Fuller Young (1902-1989). He graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and in 1955 earned a divinity degree from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. Young married Jean Childs (1933-1994) in 1954, and they had four children: Andrea, Paula, Lisa, and Andrew Jackson III. After Childs's death, he married Carolyn McClain (1944- ) in 1996. As a pastor, Young worked in a church in Marion, Alabama; at Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Georgia; and at Evergreen Congregational Church in Beachton, Georgia. He also served in the Youth Division of the National Council of Churches in New York City, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, becoming executive director in 1961. In 1961 he moved to Atlanta and started working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968); he assisted in the civil rights protest campaigns in Birmingham, Alabama (1963), St. Augustine, Florida (1964), Selma, Alabama (1965), and Atlanta, Georgia (1966). He additionally helped draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Young was with Dr. King when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

Young unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat in the 1970 Georgia Congressional elections, but was elected in 1972, and reelected in 1974 and 1976. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter (1924- ) appointed Young as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Young was the first African American to receive this appointment, and he remained in the role until 1979, when he was asked to resign after prematurely meeting with Zehdi Terzi, the United Nations representative from the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This controversial meeting became known as the "Andy Young Affair." Two years later, Young successfully ran for mayor of Atlanta, and then was reelected in 1985. His political career ended with an unsuccessful race for governor in 1990. Young additionally directed the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy; served as chairman of the board for the Global Initiative for the Advancement of Nutritional Therapy; served as president of the National Council of Churches; was the public spokesman for Working Families for Walmart; and in 2006, began the Andrew Young Foundation.