Good afternoon. Many of you participated in the panel conversation this morning. We now welcome you to the second part of today’s program, where we will award the 2018 Georgia Tech Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage to Ambassador Andrew J. Young for his decades of inspired leadership on the local, state, regional, national, and international stages. Sharing this special occasion with him are his wife, Carolyn, his daughter Andrea Young and her husband, Jerry Thomas,  as well as his daughter Lisa Alston and her husband, Douglas Alston.

For those of you just joining us, we’re glad that you’re here. We especially welcome Mr. Inman Allen and Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Allen IV, as well as other members of the Allen family and close friends. On behalf of Georgia Tech, we thank you and your family for your ongoing engagement and support. 

We extend our deep appreciation to Tom Glenn and his wife, Lou, for their commitment to this award. The Prize is supported in perpetuity through a generous commitment from The Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation. While Tom and Lou send their regrets that they couldn’t be with us here today, we are delighted to have their daughters, Louisa and Rand, here, representing the family.

We’re also honored to have with us Suzanna Stribling, executive director of the Glenn Family Foundation, and her husband, Robert Rubin.

In addition, we welcome several members of Georgia’s state House of Representatives and Senate, as well as members of the Board of Regents. We thank them for their participation today.

Georgia Tech established the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage to illuminate the legacy of Atlanta’s former mayor, and to shine a light on those around the world who bravely act to improve the human condition, often in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

The inaugural prize was awarded in March 2011 to former Senator Sam Nunn. Other recipients have been Dr. William Foege, Congressman John Lewis, human rights defender Beatrice Mtetwa, humanitarian activist Nancy Parrish, and former President and First Lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. We are delighted that Senator Nunn and Dr. Foege have joined us again today. Please join me in welcoming them back to Georgia Tech.

A Georgia Tech graduate, Ivan Allen was mayor of the City of Atlanta from 1962 to 1970. Through his own personal convictions and courage, he helped break down legal barriers to racial equality and change the culture of Atlanta and the region as the South grappled with desegregation. With vision, good will, and leadership, he was one of many who planted the seeds for our society to continue striving toward the promise of fairness and equality.

This year’s recipient was also a leader in that struggle for racial equality. Twelve years after Ivan Allen left the office, Andrew Young became Atlanta’s mayor, serving two terms. By that time, he had already served as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., as a U.S. Representative from Georgia, as a pastor, and as a human rights leader.

Mr. Young’s lifelong dedication to public service and civil and human rights helped changed the course of history. For most of his adult life, he has worked tirelessly for the social, political, and economic advancement of oppressed people around the world.

At age 29, he accepted a leadership role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and became executive director three years later. He was a leader in voter registration campaigns, including efforts on behalf of the National Council of Churches.

As a confidant and advisor at a young age to Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young has earned his place in history as a giant of the American civil rights movement. He was a strategist for important protests that led to change. In the anti-segregation march that he helped organize in Birmingham in 1963, demonstrators were hosed and set upon by dogs by order of the police commissioner. Many of us have seen the searing images from that ugly part of our country’s history, but Ambassador Young lived it. Time after time, he put his life on the line.

He and Dr. King organized demonstrations in Chicago to end race discrimination in housing. He marched with Dr. King from Selma to Montgomery to demand full and equal access to the ballot in a state and a region where African-Americans who attempted to vote were met with physical violence and economic reprisals.

He was a key strategist and negotiator during the civil rights campaign, and helped draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was with Dr. King in Memphis when he died.

Andrew Young has said, “It doesn't take courage when you know something is right. It takes determination. You see a vision and commit to it, and you risk your life and your future.”

In his third term in the U.S. House representing Georgia’s Fifth congressional district, he resigned to became our United Nations ambassador. In that position, he advocated for human rights on a global scale and helped negotiate an end to white-majority rule in Namibia and Zimbabwe.

During his two terms — from 1982 to 1990 — as Atlanta’s mayor, Mr. Young laid the foundation for the city’s present-day international reputation. He attracted new businesses and billions in private investment, and worked to develop Hartsfield International Airport. He served as chairman of the Atlanta Organizing Committee to bring the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta.

In 1996 he co-founded GoodWorks International, a consulting firm based on responsible business development in Africa and the Caribbean.

Andrew Young’s efforts to build a more just world extend far beyond our borders and a single historical era. His eloquent advocacy for human rights as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations helped cement his visionary legacy around the world, and he continues his tireless, compassionate work to improve the lot of the world's challenged communities through his Atlanta-based Andrew J. Young Foundation. As a successor to Ivan Allen Jr. in the Atlanta mayor's chair, it's altogether fitting that we honor him today as the 2018 winner of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage.

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