Just about everyone knows that Whitney Young is a person who the school was named after. But not everyone knows these cool facts about him.

1: He isn’t from Chicago, or even Illinois.
Whitney M. Young was born (July 31, 1921) in Shelby County, Kentucky and was raised there. At the age of 13 Young entered the Lincoln Institute and later graduated as a valedictorian with his sister, Margaret, right behind him as salutatorian. Young continued his studies at Kentucky State University where he was a part of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

2: He comes from a strong background of education.
Whitney M. Young and his sister weren’t the only studious people in the Young family. Whitney M. Young, Sr., was the president of the Lincoln Institute and (serving twice) the Kentucky Negro Educational Association. His mother, Lara Young, was the first woman in the state of Kentucky (second in the entire country) to work as postmistress. The job was assigned to her in 1940 by Franklin D. Roosevelt himself.

3: He was well known and respected by the three U.S. presidents he advised.
Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon all worked with and were advised by Whitney M. Young. He was even offered a position in Nixon’s Cabinet, however, not wishing to get too political, Young refused. He was awarded the highest civilian award possible, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Johnson in 1969. President Nixon even spoke at Young’s funeral saying, “he knew how to accomplish what other people were merely for.”

4: He wrote two books.
Whitney M. Young proposed solutions to matters concerning integration, social problems, and affirmative action through his two books, To Be Equal (1964) and Beyond Racism (1969). If you’d like to know more about him, a great place to start would be his own publications.

5: Besides our own school, there have been many landmarks, awards, and movies created in honor of Whitney M. Young.
There’s actually another Whitney M. Young High School which can be found in Cleveland, Ohio. There’s a Whitney Young Memorial Bridge located in Washington D.C., the movie The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights was directed by Christine Khalafian and follows Whitney Young’s journey through the civil rights movement in Kentucky, and an award created by the Boy Scouts of America to celebrate people who show heavy involvement in the development and implement of opportunities for rural and urban youth of low-income.

There are many more landmarks, programs, etc. created to honor Whitney M. Young and students should try to make time to check them out!