ATLANTA — During a time when racial segregation ruled the day, then-President Jimmy Carter appointed Andrew Young as the first Black U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Channel 2′s Lori Wilson spoke to the former ambassador, former mayor of Atlanta and longtime civil rights icon to learn more about his friendship with the former president, which started during a flood.
“Out on Peachtree Creek. He was the governor, and Peachtree Creek flooded,” Young told Wilson. “I was the congressman. I went out there to check on my constituents, and I was on one side of the creek, and he was on the other side of the creek, and it was, it was a good place to meet because we were taking on a flood. Which I don’t know that we cleaned that up yet, and that was in 1972, and that became the foundation for everything else we did.”
Going through his memories of the long friendship with Carter, Young told Channel 2 Action News about how the two would go out to play tennis and sit outside together at the governor’s mansion.
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During his presidency, “He asked me, did I have any suggestions for his administration?” Young shared. “And I don’t know that I had any, but he said, well, I would like you to go to the United Nations.”
Young filled that post for more than three years, and with Wilson, he reflected on the work positively.
“We did a lot of good all over the world,” Young said. “Actually started the process that got Nelson Mandela out of jail eventually.”
He shared how on one hand, Carter had a great sense of humor, but on the other he was no nonsense.
“If he was in his serious mood, he wanted to change the world 15 minutes ago,” Young said.
Both men were guided by their faith and a desire to bring peace to the world.
“I don’t think we ever did anything for a political reason,” Young said. “It was just [that] it was the right thing to do, and if it’s right, the hell with the politics. Do it and let the chips fall where they may.”
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