Samuel “Sammy” Leamon Younge, Jr. - Tuskegee, AL
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 32° 25.470 W 085° 41.357
16S E 623235 N 3588244
Marker located on East Martin Luther King Hwy near Maple St describes the murder of the first African-American student killed during the Civil Rights movement. The man who murdered him was indicted but found not guilty by an all-white jury.
Waymark Code: WM11CT9
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 09/29/2019
Views: 3
Marker text:
Samuel "Sammy" Leamon Younge, Jr. (1944-1966), a civil rights and voting rights activist, was the first African American university student killed during the civil rights movement. A Tuskegee native, Younge was attending Tuskegee University when Standard Oil gas station attendant Marvin Segrest shot him as he was attempting to use a whites-only bathroom. He was an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a leader of the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League (TIAL). He participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery Marches, and aided SNCC in voter registration drives in Mississippi in 1965. Along with 40 other civil rights martyrs slain between 1954 and 1968, he is honored on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. SNCC subsequently joined the anti-war opposition stating: " The murder of Samuel (Younge) in Tuskegee, Alabama, is no different than the murder of peasants in Vietnam, for both (Younge) and the Vietnamese sought, and are seeking, to secure the rights guaranteed them by law."
Marker Name: Samuel “Sammy” Leamon Younge, Jr.
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Erected by the City Of Tuskegee, Tuskegee University, Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
Part of the Tuskegee Civil Rights and Historic Trail.
Date Dedicated / Placed: 2019
Marker Number: 12
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Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alabama history please include that in your log.