Sammy Younge, Jr.; The first Black college student to die in the Black Liberation Movement

Washington DC: Open Hand Publishing Inc, 1986. First Printing thus. Trade paperback. Good. 282, [6] pages. List of Personages. Major Dates. Map. Index. Inscribed by author on first page. Cover has some wear and soiling. Originally published in 1968 by Grove Press, Inc. James Forman (October 4, 1928 - January 10, 2005) was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement and a leader active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Black Panther Party, and the International Black Workers Congress. He received a master's degree in African and Afro-American studies from Cornell University in 1980 and a Ph.D. from the Union of Experimental Colleges and Universities with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. He founded James Forman and Associates, a political consulting group. During the 1990s, he taught at American University, the University of the District of Columbia and Morgan State University in Baltimore. He was also the author of several notable books. The New York Times called him "a civil rights pioneer who brought a fiercely revolutionary vision and masterly organizational skills to virtually every major civil rights battleground in the 1960s." Samuel Leamon Younge Jr. (November 17, 1944 - January 3, 1966) was a civil rights and voting rights activist who was murdered for trying to desegregate a "whites only" restroom. Younge was an enlisted service member in the United States Navy, where he served for two years before being medically discharged. Younge was an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a leader of the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League. Younge was the first African-American university student to be murdered in the United States due to his actions in support of the Civil Rights Movement. Three days after his death, SNCC became the first civil rights organization in the United States to oppose the Vietnam War, partly on the grounds that like Younge, innocent civilians should not face deadly violence. Younge became involved in the Civil Rights Movement during his first semester at the Tuskegee Institute. He participated in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in Montgomery, Alabama, against the "Bloody Sunday" incident in March 1965. Younge joined the SNCC and the Tuskegee Institute for Advancement League (TIAL) - a local civil rights student group formed with the help of the SNCC. He soon started helping to lead protests by the organizations against civil rights infractions in Alabama. Then, in April 1965, he went to Mississippi and worked with Unita Blackwell and Fannie Lou Hamer to help the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party get black voters registered. In the Summer of 1965, Younge lead Tuskegee Institute students in challenging overt discrimination in Tuskegee. The group attempted to enter white restaurants, held rallies, and picketed establishments that refused to hire black people. Several times they attempted to attend segregated white churches and were brutally beaten twice. In September 1965, Younge was arrested and jailed after attempting to drive a group of African-Americans to get registered to vote in Lee County, Alabama. Younge continued his efforts to get blacks registered to vote in Macon County, Alabama four months after being released from jail, up until his death. Younge was shot in the back of the head by Marvin Segrest, a white gas station attendant at a Standard Oil station in Tuskegee, Alabama, on January 3, 1966. The shooting came after a verbal altercation between Younge and the attendant about Younge using the "whites-only" bathroom. Younge became the first black college student to be murdered for his actions in support of the Civil Rights Movement. His death and the subsequent acquittal of his murderer (by an all white jury) sparked outraged protests in Tuskegee.