Andrew Young

==Atlanta mayor==
In 1981, after being urged by a number of people, including [[Coretta Scott King]], the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., Young ran for mayor of [[Atlanta]]. He was elected later that year with 55% of the vote, succeeding [[Maynard Jackson]]. As mayor of Atlanta, he brought in $70 billion of new private investment.<ref name=chautauquan-vision /> He continued and expanded Jackson's programs for including minority and female-owned businesses in all city contracts. The Mayor's Task Force on Education established the Dream Jamboree College Fair that tripled the college scholarships given to Atlanta public school graduates. In 1985, he was involved in renovating the Atlanta Zoo, which was renamed [[Zoo Atlanta]].<ref name=nytimes-1987-10-05 /> Young was re-elected as mayor in 1985 with more than 80% of the vote. Atlanta hosted the [[1988 Democratic National Convention]] during Young's tenure. He was prohibited by [[term limits]] from running for a third term. During his tenure, he talked about how he was "glad to be mayor of this city, where once the mayor had me thrown in jail."<ref name=chi-tribune-young-wins />

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] saw Young ranked as the fifteenth-best American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Holli | first = Melvin G. | title = The American Mayor | publisher = PSU Press | year = 1999 | location = University Park | url = https://archive.org/details/americanmayorbes0000holl | isbn = 0-271-01876-3 }}</ref> The survey also saw Young ranked the fifth-best big-city mayor to serve in office post-1960.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Holli |first1=Melvin G. |title=American Mayors: The Best and the Worst since 1960 |journal=Social Science Quarterly |date=1997 |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=149–157 |jstor=42863681 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42863681 |access-date=March 1, 2023 |issn=0038-4941}}</ref>