On this day in Alabama history: Samuel Younge Jr. was born in
Tuskegee native Samuel Younge Jr. (1944-1966) was the first African-American student activist killed during the civil rights movement. His shooting death at a Macon County service station became a rallying point for opponents of racial inequality during the late 1960s. (Encyclopedia of Alabama)
November 17, 1944
Samuel Younge Jr. was born in Tuskegee. Younge, who also served in the U.S. Navy, joined the civil rights movement during his first semester at Tuskegee Institute and helped to organize a variety of activities, including protests, voter registrations and desegregation demonstrations at churches, restaurants and public schools. On Jan. 3, 1966, he was shot and killed at a Standard Oil gas station after attempting to use a whites-only bathroom.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Samuel Younge began attending Tuskegee Institute in Macon County in 1965 and advocated for civil rights as a member of the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League. Younge campaigned for racial equality across Alabama and in neighboring Mississippi before his shooting death in Macon County in 1966. (Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Trenholm State Technological College Archives, Dr. Gwen Patton Collection)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
