Dr. Quentin Young, known for his civil-rights activism, passed away March 7 in Berkeley, California, The Chicago Tribune noted. He was 92.
Among other achievements, Young participated in one of the historic 1965 Alabama marches from Selma to Montgomery, and co-founded and was national chairman for the Medical Committee for Human Rights.
Young had a strong connection to Chicago. He graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in the 1940s, worked as a physician at the former Michael Reese Hospital on Chicago’s South Side and was chairman of medicine at Cook County Hospital from 1971 to 1980. Overall, his patients ranged from Martin Luther King Jr. to Chicago figure Studs Terkel.
In 2014, Windy City Times profiled Young in connection with his then-new book, Everybody In, Nobody Out: Memoirs of a Rebel Without a Pause. Written in collaboration with Steve Fiffer, Young’s memoir offers a rare glimpse inside the mind of a fearless advocate for a single-payer health system, following his path through the civil-rights movement on through his stint as the head of Cook County Hospital. It was noted that Young, who retired from private practice in 2008, treated HIV/AIDS patients, and prominently promoted prevention, most notably through safe sex.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in a statement, “I was saddened to hear of the death of Dr. Quentin Young. Dr. Young spent a lifetime devoted to progressive causes in the political, social and health arenas. A lifelong South Sider and former Chairman of Medicine at Cook County Hospital, he was an early advocate of single-payer national health care and a relentless advocate of fairness and justice for all citizens. My condolences to his family.”
The Chicago Tribune article is at www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-quentin-young-dead-20160308-story.html. The Windy City Times piece on Young is at windycitytimes.com/lgbt/Retired-doctor-reflects-on-his-90-years-in-new-book/47674.html.