Social worker Whitney Moore Young, Jr.'s work on behalf of civil rights propelled him to leadership of the National Urban League, just as his commitment to social justice drew him to social work and NASW's presidency.

Young (1921-1971) attended the segregated Kentucky State College, where he took premedical courses, but when the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, he joined the Army Specialist Training Program, intent on becoming a physician. Because the few medical schools open to African Americans were filled, the Army sent him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study engineering, according to American Reformers, edited by Alden Whitman.

But the Army abandoned the program because of a manpower shortage and transferred Young to an antiaircraft company of black soldiers and white officers. And Young's career as a racial mediator began.

Resentful of poor treatment in the U.S., the company's enlisted men refused to work. Rather than admit poor leadership skills, the white officers had Young negotiate with the men.

After his Army service, Young earned an MSW at the University of Minnesota, where he wrote a master's thesis on the Urban League of St. Paul, Minn.

He worked as director of industrial relations in the league's St. Paul office and became executive secretary of the branch.

In 1954, at age 33, Young became dean of the School of Social Work at Atlanta University. There, he also became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and became president of its Georgia branch.

In 1960, Young was persuaded to become the Urban League's national executive director, despite his reservations about the organization's conservative stance during a time marked by increased activism. Founded in 1910 by a biracial group of social workers and philanthropists, the league was intended to help southern African Americans who had recently migrated to northern cities find jobs.

Young's style suited the organization's leaders, from whom he got a promise that he would be allowed to promote a more contemporary image.

Young continued the league's work in securing jobs for African Americans, but on a much grander scale. He increased the budget more than 50-fold in 10 years and communicated with executives in 300 of the country's largest corporations.

In 1966 alone, the Urban League secured jobs for 40,000 African Americans. Another 8,000, with help from the league, saw their jobs upgraded.

Time magazine cited Young's 1963 proposal for a domestic Marshall Plan as a major inspiration for President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty.

During the turbulent 1960s, according to Whitman, many African American militants were suspicious of Young, believing he was controlled by the white foundations and individuals who contributed funds that made up most of the Urban League's budget.

"I know you can't fight a tank with a beer can or destroy a regiment with a switch," Young responded, according to American Reformers. "White racists are not afraid of our fire-power, but they are afraid of our brain, our political and our economic power."

In 1969, Young joined the movement against the Vietnam War because he believed U.S. military involvement diverted funds from domestic programs needed by the poor.

Young was the author of two books, To Be Equal and Beyond Racism, and was a syndicated newspaper columnist. In 1969, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.

That year, Young was also elected NASW's ninth president. He died shortly before his term would have been completed.