Joseph Young

Obituary For Joseph Young

Joseph Young

Joseph (Joe) Young was born on March 23, 1956 to Alfred Young Jr. (deceased) and Berlina Young. Joe grew up in south central Los Angeles, the eldest boy of nine children. Joe was a loving father, generous friend, doting son, and beloved neighbor. Throughout his life, he was passionate about the plight of African Americans in the US, using his art and writing as a form of resistance.

As a teenager, “every piece of literary work that I could get my hands on, I read — just anything dealing with the African American experience,” he said. Years later, his fascination with collecting items that chronicle the black struggle for civil rights came about. “I think it had something to do with my awareness as a kid of the stark difference in the quality of life between blacks and whites,” he said.

Lonnie Bunch, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and former Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, said “The importance of the Joe Young collection is that he kind of pioneered in contemporary collecting of issues like the civil rights movement. For me as an historian of the black experience, you come to a place like the Smithsonian and you expect them to have more than they do. He’s important in the sense that we need all the repositories we can that illuminate . . . one of the pivotal moments of
American history.”

While working as a reporter with the Washington Informer, he would often be asked to take pictures to accompany his stories. Denise Rolark Barnes, the publisher of The Washington. Informer, said Joe was “thoughtful” in his reporting, which eventually gave way to a full-blown passion for photography. “It seemed as though once he focused on the lives of the people that he was writing about, he realized he could tell a story through photos and I think became really passionate about documenting folks’ stories through photos,” Barnes said on February 6, 2020, approximately 160 of his photos were accepted into the collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum. They show the transformation of D.C.. neighborhoods and symbolize gentrification occurring across the globe. “His photographs.