Eleanor Young Love

Eleanor Young Love (October 10, 1922 – July 14, 2006) was an American librarian from Kentucky. The daughter of Whitney Young and the sister of Whitney Young Jr., she worked at the Lincoln Institute, a boarding high school for African American students founded in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, during the period when Jim Crow laws were enforced. Her father was its president. She received her degree from Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University, her M.Ed. from the University of Louisville, and her D.Ed. from the University of Illinois.

Early life and education Eleanor Young was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, on October 10, 1922; her parents were Whitney Young and Laura (Ray) Young. Her siblings were Whitney Young Jr. and Arnita Young. Young's mother was one of the first female African American postmasters general in the United States. Her father was head of the Lincoln Institute. Since all faculty lived on the school grounds, Young was born and raised there. Because Kentucky was segregated at the time and many of its counties did not have high schools for African American students, many of them attended the Lincoln Institute. She became a professor of educational psychology at the University of Louisville in the 1960s. In 1978, she participated in an oral history interview.

Love also succeeded her father as head of the Lincoln Institute before desegregation resulted in its conversion into the Whitney Young Job Corps Center in the late 1960s. She became dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of Louisville, the first African-American appointed dean. She received many awards including two Governor's Appreciation Citations, the Urban League's Equality Award, NAACP Worthington Award twice, University of Louisville Minority Affairs award twice, the YMCA Black Achievers award, the Kentucky State University Outstanding Achievers award, was named a Kentucky Colonel by two governors, appointed chairwoman of the Human Relations Commission for Louisville and Jefferson County, and was a mentor to hundreds of young people in her community. She died on July 14, 2006, in Kentucky.

A scholarship for students studying school counseling was named after her at the University of Louisville, as well as a humanitarian award sponsored by the city of Louisville.