Andrew Young, Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Former Atlanta Mayor; Strategist to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Willie Brown, Former Mayor of San Francisco (Introducer)

Skip Rhodes, Past President, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors (Chair)

Kevin Johnson, Mayor of Sacramento – Moderator

To Andrew Young, the images of young protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, facing off against police officers look awfully familiar. Fifty years ago, as a key confidant and strategist to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Young was on the front lines of the civil rights movement, when people from around the country answered Dr. King’s call. But he says there’s a big difference: young people who were galvanized by violence against peaceful civil rights marchers were ushered into a movement whose leaders had clear objectives and were grounded in a deeply thought-out philosophy of non-violent struggle. Andrew Young knows that for many of the youth marching in Ferguson, the civil rights struggles are practically ancient history. But he believes it is a history well worth revisiting, because it demonstrates the very real potential of strategic civic participation.

Young — who served as a mayor, member of Congress, and U.S. ambassador — now heads a foundation that is focused on the development of emergent leaders and social entrepreneurs. He says it is not enough for people of his generation to preach the responsibilities of citizenship. “We must make connections between generations of individuals who are committed to action, sharing hard-won knowledge and equally hard-won hope that action can result in change.”