♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young -- next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, diverse representation and perspectives, equity, and inclusion is critical to meeting the needs of our colleagues, customers, and communities.

We are focused on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, both inside our company and in the communities where we live and work.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives and in our communities.

Wells Fargo -- the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> We're most honored to have Ambassador Andrew Young.

Welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Well, thank you for having me and just thank you for being you.

>> Yes, sir.

>> You've been through many dangers, toils, and snares and still on top.

God bless you.

>> When you were an ambassador, you got yourself in trouble by saying there were political prisoners in America.

I was in Wilmington Ten.

>> Yeah, I remember that.

>> Yeah, and thank you for your outspokenness.

>> Well, I wasn't being militant or outspoken.

I was trying to get people to see just what it is.

And I often wonder about those white folk that beat me up, because they were all Klan members, and they were deputized by the sheriff to try to shut down our movement.

And when I saw it on television, I realized I took a good whipping.

But that night, I didn't have an ache or pain or even a headache because it was more important for us to keep a movement going... >> Yes.

>> ...even though we all got beat up, several times for most of them.

When the Klan came marching down in Lincolnville, the black community, I didn't know what was going to happen.

But they wanted to provoke a fight.

And they had their guns under their sheets and all.

But when they came down through Lincolnville, the same black folk that had gotten beat up with me started singing, "I love everybody.

I love everybody in my heart.

You can't make me doubt Him because I know too much about Him.

I got the love of Jesus in my heart."

And I was so proud of those people.

But that spiritual witness... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...of nonviolence and forgiveness moved the Congress.

And that next week, they passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

>> That's right.

There was a recognition of the 60 years after the March on Washington, and people were doing a lot of reflecting back.

We haven't made much progress since 1963.

What's your assessment, in terms of civil rights progress, the struggle for freedom, justice, and equality?

>> If anybody says things are no better now than they were back then, they don't know what it was like, and they don't understand how well we have it now, that...

This country has been the hope of our people.

And what I said to folk at the march was, you know, "I grew up on Jesse Owens in the '36 Olympics and Jackie Robinson."

But I said, "The two things that I remember most and love about this country is Ray Charles," who was blind, talked about, sang about "America the Beautiful" in such a way that you knew he was talking about the spiritual beauty of this country because he could not see.

Louis Armstrong, from the poorest area in New Orleans -- his theme song was "It's a Wonderful World."

None of us have had it as hard as they had it, but they came out strong believers in God, in the United States of America, and in all of our people -- black, white, brown, blue, gray.

And yeah, we're going to have some sick folk, but we don't need to dwell on the negative.

>> Exactly.

>> One of the stories that changed my life was I got put out of school in third grade.

>> Really?

>> Yeah.

But I was six years old in third grade.

I didn't go to first grade.

I went straight to third grade because I could already read and write.

But I was playing in the back of the room with an older kid with an ice pick, and they put us out.

He never came back.

And I was at Howard University, and I didn't want to be a dentist.

And that's what my daddy wanted me to do.

And I was really thinking about dropping out and sort of figuring out what I wanted to do.

And I was a lifeguard at a swimming pool, and this brother came in, and he remembered me and said, "You don't know who I am, do you?"

I said, "Where did we meet?"

And he said, Miss Sarah Vanquelin's class in third grade, Valena C. Jones Elementary School."

And I said, "Where you been?"

He said, "I couldn't come back to school because my mama was making a dollar a day, plus carfare.

And she had six children, and she couldn't take a day off to come see about me."

And I said, "Well, what happened?"

He said, "I've been in and out of every reform school and prison in the state of Louisiana."

I said, "Not Angola?"

He said, "Yes, Angola, too."

And I told him I was thinking about dropping out, and he was high on something and had been kind of mumbling.

And he suddenly straightened up, and he said, "If I ever hear that you dropped out of school, I will find you.

I'll track you down."

He said, "You can't waste an opportunity to get an education.

You got to get out of here and make the world better for people like me."

>> Hmm.

>> And I never forgot that.

>> Yes.

>> And I went back to school, and I think that was one of the things that sent me on the course of the ministry, because I always remember the least of these God's children.

And I realize that with all of the blessings I've had come responsibilities.

>> Yes.

>> And you have to share those blessings.

>> Well, why do you think Atlanta is so outstanding?

>> We've had one thing that I'm very proud of that a lot of other cities haven't had.

We've had a partnership with white people.

[ Chuckles ] And when I got elected mayor, they didn't want a black mayor.

>> Is that right?

>> Yeah.

They fought me tooth and nail.

But I went to Coca-Cola and asked them to convene the CEOs of the city.

>> You were Atlanta's first black mayor.

>> No, I was the second.

>> Second.

>> But they gave Maynard Jackson a hard time because Maynard wanted to -- well, we were building it on affirmative action, that we wouldn't build the mass-transit system unless 20% of the jobs, contracts were done by minorities and female entrepreneurs.

When we built the airport, it was 25%.

But then, before I left, we brought the Olympics here.

And the Olympics raised $2.5 billion privately -- no city money, no federal money.

And minorities did 41% of the business of $2.5 billion.

And everything we did that has led to black progress, white people had already thought -- you had to have a mass-transit system to have a great city.

You had to have expressways to have a great city.

But there was nobody white that had the connections in Washington.

But when I got elected mayor, I had already been to Congress and the United Nations.

>> Right.

>> And I could pick up the phone and call friends of mine in the Congress.

A guy that John Lewis and I both campaigned for when he was put out of his district by reapportionment, he ended up getting reelected in a predominantly black district because we went to campaign for him, and he had frozen all the money for highways.

And I called him, and I said, "Look, Jim.

We have got to have some highway money."

And he said -- and we invited him down to look around to see how fast we were growing and how much we needed.

And he sent $900 million, and that allowed us to create our expressway system and expand it.

We have made government work at the local level.

We've had cooperation with just about every president, Democrat and Republican.

And until just recently, we got along with the state so that we have, let's say, integrated politics.

And when I say integrated, I don't just mean black and white.

I mean business and civic.

I mean that we've got an educational system.

>> Yes.

>> Well, the biggest thing we've done was pass a lottery bill that the HOPE scholarship goes strictly to education.

And Zell Miller, a very conservative North Georgia white boy, insisted that all of the money go to education because he grew up and had a hard time getting an education.

But he came out of the military and went under the G.I.

Bill and got his master's degree and was a believer in education.

But I was talking about higher education because of our colleges.

But he said, "No, we've got to have good preschool education.

We don't start early enough."

And he said, "I know because I grew up in the mountains of Georgia."

And so, I had no disagreement with that.

We desperately need preschool education for 4- and 5-year-olds.

>> Yes.

>> And all those things are beginning to bear fruit now.

We still have problems, but they're things like traffic.

They're things like homelessness because every time something goes wrong somewhere else, people think, "I'll go to Atlanta."

But that has helped us.

It hasn't hurt us.

I guess almost at least 100,000 people, maybe more, came here from New Orleans after Katrina.

>> After the hurricane, yes.

>> When the automobile business went -- >> And they stayed.

They decided to stay.

>> They stayed.

When the automobile business went down in Detroit... See, in 1980, when I was elected mayor, Atlanta had a million people.

Detroit had 7 million.

Now Atlanta has 7 million, and Detroit has a little less than a million.

And so, we have been a beneficiary of almost every positive trend in this nation.

And nobody's forced it on us.

We've worked it out together.

The first thing I did when I got elected was go to Coca-Cola and ask the president of Coca-Cola if he would entertain a lunch of all of the chief executive officers in the city of Atlanta.

We had 85 people for lunch, and all I did was give them my...

They were all against me.

And I said, "Look.

I got elected without you, but I can't run this city without you.

And if I mess up, I mess up in a $50,000 job, which I didn't want, anyway.

And I'll just go somewhere and make me an honest living and leave politics alone.

But if I'm not a good mayor for four years, your businesses are going to feel it.

And if you want me to be a good mayor, I need you to help me to be a good mayor."

And I gave everybody my home phone number and told them to, "Don't complain.

Call me.

You can call me any time of the day or night."

Now, ironically, nobody called that I didn't already know very well.

But they would call people on my staff and tell them, and I have always had an integrated staff.

>> Yes.

>> It's just black and white, young and old, rich and poor.

>> Working together.

>> Working together.

>> You know, in the United Church of Christ, people ask me all the time, "What church are you in?"

I say, "I'm in the UCC."

It's a predominant white church, but blacks and whites learn how to work together.

>> Well, not only did they learn how to work together, the Amistad Rebellion, the students in Yale Divinity School reached out to the slaves who mutinied on the Amistad.

>> Yes.

>> They learned their language and taught them English.

And they started right after the Civil War in founding Howard University.

>> I know -- the American Missionary Association.

>> The American Missionary Association.

The Board of Overseas Missions also went to South Africa, and they formed an Adams College, which is named for John Adams, the second president of the United States.

So, everywhere we have seen progress, it's been black and white together.

You know, we used to sing that.

>> That was the song.

>> "Black and white together."

>> You know, a verse of "We Shall Overcome" was "black and white together."

>> Exactly.

>> But people stopped singing that verse.

But I think the lessons that you are sharing, Ambassador Young, they're very important because I think people should learn from our history.

>> When Martin finished his speech, the speech really started when he started and said, "But I have a dream."

>> Yes.

>> He talked about all the things that were wrong in America.

"But I have a dream that someday the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will sit down at a table of brotherhood."

>> Yes.

>> But he ended that speech, and I just realized this this time.

He said it all the time -- "Free at last, free at last.

Thank God Almighty, we're free at last."

And the way I interpret that is we're no longer slaves.

We're no longer... We have equal opportunity to make this a great nation, and if we are able to work hard, the educational opportunities are opening up.

I understand that the new president of Harvard is a black woman, and that's a significant move.

That and the young black woman who went to the Supreme Court.

>> Yes.

>> Yes, we have problems.

We have shootings all over.

They're racially motivated, but... >> And surprisingly by young people.

>> Sick, young people.

I mean, if folk had integrated public schools -- I know with my children and grandchildren.

I think that those that went to public schools may not have had as high a test score.

But they get along better with people, and they function better in this society because they learn to deal with what Martin used to call "the least of these God's children."

They're not just looking up... >> Right.

>> ...to see how they can get to the top.

They haven't forgotten those who are left behind.

>> Well, you were one of Dr. King's trusted advisors, trusted coworkers.

>> Well, you know, he was very much like that, too, because his family was very wealthy.

And his mother had been to Oberlin.

And his sister also went to Oberlin, I think, and it was a very well-educated family.

>> UCC schools.

>> Hmm?

>> Oberlin was a UCC school.

>> Yeah.

In Ohio.

>> In Ohio.

All from the same city in Alabama.

>> Little, little... >> How did that happen?

>> ...Marion, Alabama.

Well, that happened because -- >> Abernathy's wife, your wife, and Dr. King's wife.

>> That happened because of Christian missionaries.

Christian missionaries came south after the Civil War, and one of the places -- Julian Bond's father wrote his PhD dissertation on Lincoln School, where all of them went to high school, elementary school and high school.

And that little town, that school had produced more black PhDs in the '40s.

>> Marion, Alabama.

>> Marion, Alabama, than any other state in the country.

But they had dedicated teachers that came down from New England and the Midwest and with my wife and Coretta, Martin's wife... >> Yes.

>> ...the same couple lifted them up in Marion, Alabama, and arranged for them.

Coretta went to Antioch College.

>> Yes.

>> And Jean went to Manchester College in Indiana, and it just makes a difference.

If somebody has given your family a helping hand, and they have given you a helping hand, you can't forget how you got where you are.

>> That's right.

>> You didn't make it on your own.

And somebody made a sacrifice.

And I have kept up with that same family that educated Coretta and Jean's families.

And they paid for it out of -- they arranged scholarships and rounded up money from their friends to pay for their education.

>> So, Ambassador Young, look.

Every word you speak is wisdom, experience.

What's your hope for America?

>> Well, you know the song.

"Lord, I Don't Feel No Ways Tired."

>> Yes.

>> And I just turned 91, and I met with a group of truck drivers from UPS a couple of weeks ago, and they were all millionaires.

>> Truck drivers?

>> Truck drivers because UPS allowed them to have stock options when they started out, and they could buy a share of stock for $2.

That's worth $200-and-some now.

So, when they retired in their early 70s, they all rich, and they invited me to talk to them.

And what I said to him was, "You can't stop at 70 anymore."

I said, "Now, you can smoke cigars, drink liquor, and play golf, see, for about ten years, maybe, if you're lucky.

But if you leave off the liquor and the cigars and concentrate on passing on the blessings that you have received to future generations, the seniors, people like" -- you're almost a senior.

>> Yes.

>> I was reminding them of a song that our ancestors used to sing.

"Gotta keep on running.

Trying to make 100.

99 1/2 won't do."

And I think you can't sit on your behind and do nothing from 70.

>> That's right.

>> There's a lot of wisdom you have, a lot of love and experience you have, and your children, your grandchildren, the children in your public schools need the very thing that you have, and you can't just sit on your behind and drink it away.

>> Exactly.

Ambassador Andrew Young, thank you for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, please visit our website at TheChavisChronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, X, formally known as Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, diverse representation and perspectives, equity, and inclusion is critical to meeting the needs of our colleagues, customers, and communities.

We are focused on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, both inside our company and in the communities where we live and work.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives and in our communities.

Wells Fargo -- the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

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