An Unsung Hero?

I  have to admit to being critical that we have to have to mark a month to celebrate Black History Month as our history textbooks should include this part of our country's history. Yet  as an adult I am learning something new all the time. So thank goodness that PBS shared a documentary in honor of Black History month  The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights. I learned about Whitney Young who played a major role in mobilizing the Civil Rights  Movement.

Whitney Young used humor to make change palatable to the white community.

Mr. Young's work with the Urban League brought capital investment to the inner city. "He turned a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for equitable access to socioeconomic opportunity for the historically disenfranchised. "

Below of some of his famous quotes which sum up the essence of his being and his lifelong work.
"Every man is our brother, and every man’s burden is our own. Where poverty exists, all are poorer. Where hate flourishes, all are corrupted. Where injustice reins, all are unequal."

"I am not anxious to be the loudest voice or the most popular. But I would like to think that at a crucial moment, I was an effective voice of the voiceless, an effective hope of the hopeless."

"You can holler, protest, march, picket and demonstrate, but somebody must be able to sit in on the strategy conferences and plot a course. There must be strategies, the researchers, the professionals to carry out the program. That's our role."

"Black Power simply means: Look at me, I'm here. I have dignity. I have pride. I have roots. I insist, I demand that I participate in those decisions that affect my life and the lives of my children. It means that I am somebody."

"Liberalism seems to be related to the distance people are from the problem."

"I'd rather be prepared for an opportunity that never comes than have an opportunity come and I am not prepared."

"Pride and dignity come when you reach in your pocket and find money, not a hole."

He was criticized by many as selling out but his feeling was that you had to work from within the system to effect change.  What a smart man who accomplished so much and to whom we all owe a great deal ... Better to sing his praises now than to never have sung them at all...