Gary Younge | |
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.jpg) Younge in 2014 | |
| Born | Gary Andrew Younge January 1969 (age 56) Stevenage,Hertfordshire, England |
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| Alma mater | Heriot-Watt University City, University of London |
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| Spouse | Tara Mack |
| Children | 2 |
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| www | |
Gary Andrew YoungeFAcSS,FRSL (born January 1969)[1][2] is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large forThe Guardian newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointed as professor of sociology at theUniversity of Manchester and would be leaving his post atThe Guardian, where he was a columnist for two decades, although he continued to write for the newspaper.[3] He also writes for theNew Statesman.
Younge is the author of the booksNo Place Like Home (2002),Stranger in a Strange Land (2006), andWho Are We – And Should It Matter in the 21st Century? (2011),The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream (2013), andAnother Day in the Death of America (2016).
Younge grew up inStevenage, Hertfordshire, where he was born.[4] He is ofBarbadian extraction.[5]
In 1984, aged 15, he briefly joined the Young Socialists, the youth section of theWorkers Revolutionary Party, but left a year later after harassment from other party members, including allegedly being accused of working forMI5 and claims that he supportedFidel Castro only because of his ethnicity.[6] At the age of 17, Younge went to teach English in aUnited Nations Eritrean refugee school inSudan with the educational charityProject Trust.[7]
From 1987 to 1992, he attendedHeriot-Watt University inEdinburgh, Scotland, where he studied French and Russian,[8][9] and was elected vice president (welfare) of the student association, a paid sabbatical post that he held for a year.[9]
In his final year at university, Younge was awarded abursary fromThe Guardian to study journalism atThe City University in London, and after a short internship atYorkshire Television he joinedThe Guardian in 1993, and has since reported from all over Europe, and Africa, the US and the Caribbean.[7]
His 1999 debut book,No Place Like Home, in which he retraced the route of thecivil rightsFreedom Riders, was shortlisted for theGuardian First Book Award. His subsequent books areStranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States (2006),Who Are We – And Should It Matter in the 21st Century? (2011),The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream (2013), and most recentlyAnother Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives (2016), a "deeply affecting" account of everyday fatalities among young people across the US,[10] which in 2017 won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize fromColumbia Journalism School and theNieman Foundation for Journalism.[7] Younge also wrote a monthly column forThe Nation magazine, "Beneath the Radar".[11]
In 2019, Younge was appointed a professor of sociology in the School of Social Sciences atManchester University, writing his last column forThe Guardian in January 2020.[3][12]
Younge was named on the 2020 list of100 Great Black Britons.[13] In addition, on the2020 and2021Powerlist, Younge was listed among the Top 100 of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.[14]
His 2023 book,Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter, a collection of his journalism covering four decades of reporting from Britain, the US, and South Africa, was described in theNew Statesman as "a reminder of how much racism has changed and how much it has stayed the same."[15] It was said by theTLS reviewer to "offer compelling, nuanced reflections on politics, history and culture".[16]
In 2011, Younge relocated toChicago, Illinois, where he lived with his immediate family until returning to the UK in 2015.[7] In 2015, he announced his intention to move toHackney in London,[17] with his wife and two children.[7] His brother Pat Younge was chief creative officer ofBBC Vision,[18] becoming chair of the council atCardiff University in 2022.[19]
Media related toGary Younge at Wikimedia Commons
