| Whitney M. Young, Jr., born this day in 1921 in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, was an articulate American civil rights leader who spearheaded the drive for equal opportunity for blacks in industry and U.S. government service during his 10 years as head of the National Urban League (1961–71), the world's largest social-civil rights organization. His advocacy of a “Domestic Marshall Plan”—massive funds to help solve America's racial problems—was felt to have strongly influenced federal poverty programs sponsored by Democratic presidential administrations in the 1960s. |