Feb 20, 2022
There have many heroes in the struggle for equity and civil rights. Few had the longevity of Nathan B. Young. In his 98 years, he was a judge, as well as being a co-founder of the St. Louis American Newspaper, and a painter, among many other accomplishments. Just press play to hear the whole story. ------
Click on search links to explore episodes with related content: Cicely Hunter, Black History, Journalism, Legal Matters, Civil Rights, People of Note, ------
Podcast Transcript: I’m
Cicely Hunter, Public Historian from the Missouri Historical
Society, and here’s history, on eighty-eight-one, KDHX. ------
Nathan B. Young, a prominent African American judge in St.
Louis, lived to be 98, passing away in 1993. It’s amazing to think
about what he experienced over those years, things like the Harlem
Renaissance, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, and
the desegregation busing era. His life was interesting from the
very beginning. Born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1894, he lived next
door to Booker T. Washington. ———
Judge Young graduated with his bachelor’s degree from Florida
A&M and a law degree from Yale University Law School in 1918.
As a young attorney in Birmingham, Judge Young was targeted and
threatened by the Ku Klux Klan due to his involvement with the
local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP). Judge Young decided to migrate north with his wife, Mamie,
and practiced law in St. Louis. He described the city as an “oasis
compared to Birmingham, Alabama, at the time in 1924.” ———
A few years later he co-founded the St. Louis American, an African
American weekly newspaper, which was soon being circulated to over
2,000 readers. Young contributed an editorial in every single issue
for over forty years. One of his first articles focused on the work
of A. Philip Randolph, a labor unionist and civil rights advocate,
who Young described as an “unsung hero.” Randolph experienced many
challenges fighting “to get recognition as a regular labor
organization from the Pullman Company which had set up its own
porters’ union.” ———
Young enjoyed researching local Black history and developed an expertise, even writing a history of African Americans in St. Louis in 1937. When the civil rights movement was discussed, Judge Young concluded that St. Louis was important to the civil rights movement as a city with a strong Black activism presence and there were several cases that received national attention like Dred and Harriet Scott’s freedom suit, Shelley v Kraemer and Gaines v Canada. ———
Judge Young was named the first African American municipal judge for City Court #2 in St. Louis by Mayor Alfonso Cervantes in December of 1965. He would retire as judge in 1972 but continued to influence the community. In honor of Black history month, let’s recognize local African Americans like Judge Nathan B. Young Jr. who shared Black history with his community and now contributes to the legacy of our city. ———
Here’s history is a joint production of the Missouri Historical Society and KDHX. I’m Cicely Hunter and this is eighty-eight-one, KDHX, St. Louis.