From STAFF REPORTS

MONTEVALLO – Andrew Young, a politician, human rights activist and businessman, will be the speaker for the University of Montevallo’s commencement ceremony Dec. 13, according to a press release.

A former pastor and former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Young was a trusted aid to Martin Luther King Jr. and was with King when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.

Young was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972 and became the first African American since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from Georgia. In 1977, Young became an ambassador to the United Nations after being nominated by President Jimmy Carter.

Young was also elected the mayor of Atlanta in 1981 and won reelection in 1985.

Young is currently a professor at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He has also remained active in Georgia’s civic affairs, serving as co-chair of the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games and continuing to foster economic growth in the developing world as a business consultant and as chairman of the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund.

Commencement will begin at 5 p.m. in the McChesney Student Activity Center on the UM campus.