This Week In National Press Club History: Andrew Young reveals findings from survey on African-American males

May 14, 1996: Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, three-term congressman, and one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s senior lieutenants, reviews findings from a survey on the status of African-American males in American society, at a National Press Club luncheon. He is chairman of the National Task Force on African-American Men and Boys, which has just issued a report: “Repairing the Breach: Key Ways To Support Family Life, Reclaim Our Streets and Rebuild Civil Society in America.” Young attributes much of today’s problems to “well-intentioned but lots of bad government policy,” claiming that “it goes against everything we know about family.”

May 14, 2009: Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group Ltd., discusses challenges facing the airline industry in an era of global economic decline, in a breakfast speech at the Club. He denounces a proposed merger between British Airways and American Airlines because of possible damaging effects it could have on competition and passenger service on transatlantic routes.

May 16, 1916: President Woodrow Wilson, in one of many speeches to the National Press Club, chides journalists for “remarks that start fires” and envisions a press that “will divest themselves of party passion and of personal preference and will try to think in terms of America.” War rages in Europe as he prepares to run for his second term, but the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania by a German U-boat one year ago has not yet led the United States to enter the war.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s century-plus history through lobby displays of prominent Club speakers from the arts, business and politics, panel discussions, events and an extensive oral history project.

For information on the Committee’s activities, or to join it, contact Chair Gilbert Klein, at [email protected].