Ex-Envoy Andrew Young Facing Cancer Surgery

Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer and faces surgery later this year, the 67-year-old civil rights leader said Friday.

The former congressman and Atlanta mayor will have surgery to remove his prostate at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital in early December, he said in a statement released by his Atlanta-based consulting firm.

“I will be out of commission for a couple of weeks following surgery, and then I look forward to a successful recovery period,” he said.

He said the cancer was detected at an early stage during routine tests.

Young was a top lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the U.S. civil rights protests of the 1960s and became the first black congressman from Georgia in more than a century when he was elected in 1972 to the first of three terms.

He was named U.N. ambassador by President Carter in January 1977 and was fired two years later after holding secret and unauthorized meetings with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Young was elected mayor of Atlanta in October 1981. In recent years he has headed GoodWorks International, which attracts investment capital to developing nations.

Young said his cancer was detected in the early stages during a regular blood test to screen for the disease.

He made his diagnosis public to raise awareness of prostate cancer, which has a higher incidence among African-American men, and to encourage men to have regular prostate screenings, a spokesman said.

“We wanted to go public with this announcement in part to encourage other men of his age, particularly African-American men, to pay close attention to prostate health,” spokesman Lee Echols said.