In 1964 , Young was named executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) , becoming , in that capacity , one of King 's principal lieutenants . As a colleague and friend of Martin Luther King Jr. , he was a strategist and negotiator during the Civil Rights Campaigns in Birmingham ( 1963 ) , St. Augustine ( 1964 ) , Selma ( 1965 ) , and Atlanta ( 1966 ) . He was jailed for his participation in civil rights demonstrations , both in Selma , Alabama , and in St. Augustine , Florida . The movement gained congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 . Young was with King in Memphis , Tennessee , when King was assassinated in 1968
King was assassinated
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Andrew Young