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NORTH MANCHESTER – Toyota announced a $250,000 donation to Manchester University to support the building of the all-new Jean Childs Young Intercultural Center and to name the “Toyota Round,” a multipurpose space that will become a campus focal point for multicultural discussions and programming.
Manchester will use the space as a gathering place for students, community and business leaders from the region. Programming will focus on diversity and inclusion, civic engagement and building diverse communities, according to a news release from Toyota.
The Center is named in memory of Manchester 1954 alumna Jean Childs Young. She had a distinguished career as a teacher and served as an advocate for education, children’s welfare and civil rights. She worked alongside her husband, U.S. Ambassador and former City of Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Jean Childs Young chair of the U.S. Commission of the International Year of the Child. She also established the Atlanta Task Force on Education, served as co-founder of the Atlanta-Fulton Commission on Children and Youth, and helped develop Atlanta Junior College.
She served Manchester University as a trustee from 1975 to 1979 and received an honorary doctorate from Manchester in 1980. She died of liver cancer in 1994 at the age of 61.
“We are deeply grateful for this donation from Toyota Motor North America,” said David F. McFadden, president, Manchester University. “The Toyota Round will be a valuable resource for our students as well as the communities that surround us.”
The 5,000-square-foot building will feature a circular domed space named the Toyota Round.
“The circular design of the Toyota Round evokes the symbolic importance in many cultures of gathering in a round when discussing difficult issues,” said McFadden. “It is welcoming, inclusive and non-hierarchical.”
“Our education community partnerships help to develop programs that empower students to learn, achieve and succeed,” said Al Smith Jr., group vice president and chief social innovation officer, Toyota Motor North America. “Bringing the campus and communities together around issues of diversity and inclusion fits well with Toyota’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, which is grounded in our guiding principles: continuous improvement and respect for people. We are focused on educating today’s students to build tomorrow’s leaders.”
Jean Childs followed two older sisters to Manchester and earned a degree in elementary education. Weeks after graduating, she married Andrew Young, who remained at the side of his close friend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., throughout the Civil Rights Movement.
Andrew Young stated, “Much of my story is a result of Jean’s study at Manchester. I doubt that it could have happened if I’d married anyone else.”
Young says that it was through Jean’s meeting of Coretta Scott King that he was introduced to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“This project is especially timely for us since the university is holding a number of events in 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” McFadden said. “Dr. King’s last speech on a college campus, titled ‘The Future of Integration,’ was delivered at Manchester on Feb. 1, 1968, just a few months before he was slain.”
The Jean Childs Young Intercultural Center official groundbreaking is expected to take place Feb. 1, with completion in fall 2018. Some work on the site began this month.
