On 3 January 1966, military veteran and civil rights activist Sammy Younge, Jr was murdered in Alabama. Younge was killed by a gas station attendant in Macon County for trying to use the "whites-only" restroom.
Younge was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1962 and was discharged in 1964. He subsequently enrolled in Tuskegee Institute in 1965. As a student at Tuskegee, he participated in the march from Selman to Montgomery. He experienced Bloody Sunday. Younge was also an active member of SNCC and the Tuskegee Institute for Advancement League, a local civil rights group formed by SNCC. In 1965, he participated in Mississippi Summer.
While attempting to use a whites only, Younge was shot in the face by Marvin Segrest, a 68 white gas attendant at Standard Oil in Tuskegee. Segrest was acquited for Younge's murder by an all-white jury.
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