Quentin Young was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 5, 1923. After studying at the University of Chicago and Cornell University, he received two bachelors degrees in medicine and a medical degree at Northwestern University; he was later awarded a masters degree in physiology in 1952 at the University of Illinois. After completing his residency at Cook County Hospital in 1952 Young worked as an attending physician of thoracic medicine at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, as well as keeping a private practice in Hyde Park.
In June 1964, Young joined a group of liberal health professionals in founding the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR), a group organized to provide medical assistance to civil rights workers during the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. Young was one of hundreds of northern physicians who volunteered to go South in order to observe medical conditions. During 1964-1965 MCHR was almost completely concerned with its Southern project, however as membership grew, it began to address other social, political and medical issues. The organization lobbied against the use of mace during the Vietnam War, and it championed the cause of the poor and uninsured. Because of its leftist critique of the medical establishment, MCHR emerged as an alternative to the American Medical Association which was then regarded by many as conservative and unsympathetic to the needs of the poor. In 1967 and 1968 MCHR was instrumental in major demonstrations at the AMA annual conventions. In 1968, the MCHR's Chicago Chapter provided neutral medical assistance to that year's Democratic Convention. In order to create support, in 1967 and again in 1968 MCHR ran full-page advertisements about their work in the New York Times. Some of the physicians who endorsed MCHR's actions were Benjamin Spock, Joseph Stokes, Alfred Klinger, and Alan Guttmacher. MCHR published a monthly newspaper entitled Health Rights News.
The MCHR originally had a national office in New York City. With no money to support a permanent headquarters, the national office annually moved to the residence of the national chairman. A national executive committee oversaw the major policy decisions of the national organization. Over the Executive Committee was a governing body comprised of delegates from local chapters that met twice a year. Once a year the MCHR held a national convention where policy, finances, and activities were discussed and resolutions adopted. Membership in the MCHR was split into numerous local chapters, Chicago being the largest. Funding for MCHR came from membership fees and contributions, however, the group always suffered from a lack of finances.
In addition to serving as a leader of MCHR's Chicago chapter, Young also served as the national assistant chairman in 1966-1967 and as national chairman in 1967-1968. In these positions, he played a major role in organizing health professionals for civil rights and health care reform. Young's influence at the 1968 Democratic Convention caught the attention of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and he was subpoenaed by HUAC in 1968 on suspicion of plotting the violence that erupted at the convention.
Aside from this involvement in MCHR, which faded from existence in the early 1970s, Young was an activist in his community and profession. As a south-side physician, Young played close attention to the needs of Chicago's poor. He was involved in numerous Chicago health-related organizations as well as other neighborhood associations.
