An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 1/3/2021,
the 55th anniversary of Younge's death
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"The murder of Samuel Younge, Jr. in Tuskegee, Alabama, is no different than the murder of peasants in Vietnam, for both Younge and the Vietnamese sought, and are seeking, to secure the rights guaranteed them by law. In each case, the United States government bears a great part of the responsibility for these deaths."-- SNCC position paper, Jan 6, 1966
In this first #blacklivesmatter illustrated biography of 2021, we examine the life --and death-- of Sammy Younge, Jr. Born in Tuskegee, AL in 1944, Younge internalized the reality of race relations early on. Educated in Massachusetts and following a brief career in the U.S. Navy (discharged in 1964), he returned to his hometown as a student of political science at the Tuskegee Institute.
Younge swiftly became involved in the civil rights movement, working with (among others) Fannie Lou Hamer (see Lesson #51 in this series) to register black Mississippians to vote throughout the summer of 1965. As an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Younge led student rallies and demonstrations, lunch counter sit-ins, and participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery march.
On this date (January 3) in 1966, Younge was shot in the face at close range by a gas station attendant in his very hometown, following a verbal altercation about Younge using a "whites-only" restroom. His killer openly admitted to the crime, and was ultimately acquitted on second degree murder charges by an all-white jury after only 70 minutes' deliberation --the trial venue had been moved from Lee County to a different county with a higher per-capita white population. The resultant outrage and protests galvanized the SNCC to formally declare its opposition to the Vietnam War. Younge holds the dubious distinction of being the first death in support of the Civil Rights movement.
https://www.crmvet.org/docs/snccviet.htm
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/sammy-younge-jr-murdered/
A letter from Harry Belafonte: https://www.crmvet.org/docs/660000_sncc_harrybelafonte.pdf
Next page - Lesson 64: Anne Moody