[1] Whitney's mother, Laura (Ray) Young, was a teacher who served as the first female postmistress in Kentucky (second in the United States), being appointed to that position by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

After the war, Young joined his wife, Margaret, at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master's degree in social work in 1947 and volunteered for the St. Paul branch of the National Urban League.

[10][11] There, Young supported alumni in their boycott of the Georgia Conference of Social Welfare in response to low rates of African-American employment within the organization.[when?

[citation needed] Due in part to the Youngs' influence, the church stopped having its annual picnics at segregated parks and became "integrated not just desegregated.

"[attribution needed] Many in the congregation were active in the civil rights movement, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., then assistant to his father at nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church, was a pulpit guest.

"[19] As part of the League's new mission, Young initiated programs like "Street Academy", an alternative education system to prepare high school dropouts for college, and "New Thrust", an effort to help local black leaders identify and solve community problems.

In doing so, he fostered close relationships with CEOs such as Henry Ford II, leading some blacks to charge that Young had sold out to the white establishment.

Despite their close personal relationship, Young was frustrated by Johnson's attempts to use him to balance Martin Luther King's opposition to the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War.

In 1968, as part of an FBI organized COINTELPRO operation against the Black liberation movement, Herman B. Ferguson and Arthur Harris were convicted of conspiring to murder Young.

[23] In 1968, Young was invited to address the American Institute of Architects National Convention in Portland, Oregon through the keynote speech.

[24] At the time, Young was the executive director of the National Urban League and had spoken before on the concerns of the AIA regarding social and racial inequality in housing and cities.

[24] In his speech, he addressed the institute's silent stance on the turmoil in the country and urged them to stand up and endorse the efforts of John F. Kennedy & Martin Luther King Jr. in their actions.

[25] In response to Young's words, the Institute created two separate resolutions to advance the organizations initiative for diversity and social equality: one created a scholarship program, the AIA/Architects Foundation Diversity Advancement Scholarship, specifically for minorities who wanted to study architecture and another called architects to be actively engaged in the current social issues.

[24] To address the lack of diversity in the profession, the AIA revised their Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to ban discrimination based on sex, race or religion and was expanded in subsequent years to include place of origin, disabled status and sexual orientation or gender identity.

Young spent his tenure as President of NASW ensuring that the profession kept pace with the troubling social and human challenges it was facing.

On March 11, 1971, Young drowned while swimming with friends in Lagos, Nigeria, where he was attending a conference sponsored by the African-American Institute.

[36] There are also several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including businessman Mark Boles who served on the Urban League board and artist Jordan Casteel.

[39] Young's work was considered instrumental in breaking down the barriers of segregation and inequality that held back African Americans.

Young was honored in 1981 by the United States Postal Service on a postage stamp issued as part of its ongoing Black Heritage series.

In 1973, The African American MBA Association at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania held its first Annual Whitney M. Young Jr. Memorial Conference.

The film includes archival footage, photos, and interviews compiled by Young's niece, award-winning journalist Bonnie Boswell Hamilton.

Interviews include Henry Louis Gates Jr., Ossie Davis, Julian Bond, Roy Innis, Vernon Jordan, Dorothy Height, and Donald Rumsfeld.