The Life Lessons of Ambassador Andrew Young

This special episode features an interview with Ambassador Andrew Young. 

 

Ambassador Andrew Young is a politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, he was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome The Money in Wealth with John Hobryant, a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
this is John Hope Bryant and this is Money and Wealth.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Okay, I'm on the wrong program. I don't belong here. No,
if you're talking about money and wealth, if you're talking
about politics, and if you're talking about human rights, then
maybe you got the right fella. But good, let's see
where we go.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I think the guy who helped to build the only
international city in the South, Atlanta, Georgia, the traditional South
into a four hundred and fifty billion dollars plus a
year economic powerhouse, the only mayor who happened to be
mentored by doctor Martin the King Jr. Amongst his many successes,
and the guy who made I Knew a million dollars

(00:57):
a year and gave most of it away. I think
you're more qualified to talk about money and well, just
the only reason you won't happen is you gave it away.
So now he interrupted me, I can tell you the
gentleman next to me, my mentor of my hero, the
Operation Global Spokesman, is Ambassador Reverend Doctor Ambassador Andrew J. Young,

(01:20):
who I jokingly, but I think seriously also suggests is
that Nelson Mandela of our generation in the world, there
is nobody else who has one hundred and thirty honorary
doctor degrees. Doesn't exist, not a black man. When I
was coming up trying to be an international businessman, the
only people I knew who were international and about the

(01:42):
business and respected by whites and blacks and everybody else
around the world was Quincy Jones, an ambassador Andrew Young.
I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Either Quincy's doing Quincy Quincy's Quincy's fine, okay, But Ambassador
Young is ninety two years young, and as you're about
to hear it, ain't nothing knowed about him.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
But what you have is a unique opportunity to get
both a history lesson and a business plan for your life.
This is not just looking backwards, it's looking forward. This
is about right now, because over his span of ninety
two years, we've gone from what they call civil rights
to what I call silver rights. I mean, he was
in the room. I saw video recently on Instagram where

(02:29):
folks are talking about doctor King's last meetings and he
met with Harry Belafonte in New York talking about the
next movement being about poverty. Well, you don't need to
watch a video about that. He was in the room.
He was also on the balcony when doctor King was assassinating.
This is a man who has lived history. Helped to
get President Jimmy Carter elected along with Daddy King, was

(02:50):
the first black UN ambassador in the history of the US.
And I won't do this for long because he will
rupt me. He was the first black man to be
elected into Congress's reconstruction and the mayor, you know, Mayor Jackson,
to give him his credit, created black wealth in Atlanta.
But it was Andrew Young who actually turned the color

(03:11):
green and made it international. He turned Atlanta in the
into the only international city, as I said earlier, in
the traditional South, and it's the biggest economy in the
traditional South. Folks trying to copy what he's done. I mean, basically,
Nashville is a country music version of Atlanta. That's not
a disc that's a compliment to them.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
And the Vanderbilt football team beat Alabama, so we got
to show them a little something.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, by the way, this episode is going to be evergreen,
so you don't want to talk about too much stuff
that is in the moment, because it's going to live
on forever. As you can see as a very very
vibrant since the humor, and he doesn't mind cutting me
off either. As you will notice throughout the entire segment.
We'll try not to make this a comedy skit, but
I love this guy. He underrated in the world. He

(04:01):
just came up Andrew Young Boulevard. I'm not kidding. To
get to the office here, he had to come up
Andrew Young. He talked about where he had lunch today. Well,
you know it was in Andrew Young Boulevard and Blank Street.
He just says it like it's nothing. I'm like, yeah,
but you're Andrew Young. He doesn't even think about it.
It's just an incredible leader in the world. And you
should do your research. By the way, you guys watching

(04:24):
and listen to this, I'm sure you've heard the name
and you knew he had some associated with doct association
with doctor King, But I'm sure you didn't not know all.
Did you know? He brought the Olympic Games to Atlanta? Hello,
the ninety six Olympic Games. He goes on and on
and on. So do some research, use artificial intelligence, and
use the Internet for something productive. Research his name. Teach
it to your kids, your brother, your sister, your friends,

(04:45):
your wife, your mate, because this is the history that matters.
Now we're gonna get into this money and Wether episode
because there's some things you don't know you might have
assumed that are wrong. How did Andrew Young get to
Doctor King? Well, they knew each other, you'll hear the story,
and they liked each other. But there were people within

(05:07):
the SELC that figured, you know, everybody had a role already.
The didn't need him around and doctor King was out
giving speeches and so they really tried to shoe him away,
but he came back with some money. This is where
the money conversation starts. He came back to SELC to
support Doctor King with some money. What was that about Ambassato, Well.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
What happened was that there was a wonderful lady by
the name of missus Septemer Clark from Charleston, South Carolina,
and she was teaching the Long Showmen. They lived on
John's Island and had to come to work every morning

(05:50):
between five and six on a ferry. Well, Missus Clark
was a school teacher who got up at four thirty
in the morning and got on the ferry and she
was teaching these long showmen to read and write so
that they could register the vote. And that's the way
she taught them. And she taught them really by teaching

(06:14):
them that they could already read. For instance, well here,
if you hold that up, everybody say coca cola, and
there may be a thousand signs, a thousand words that
are in everybody's vocabulary, but they never hook them together.
And what she did was develop a method of reading,

(06:37):
teaching reading that when you learn coca cola, she broke
it down into syllables so that whenever you see coo,
you see coke and la is law. And once she
taught people to recognize the the syllables, it was pretty

(07:03):
easy for them to in their daily lives just read
the things that they were looking at. And the State
of South Carolina fired her from a teaching job.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Okay, we're gonna have this problem the entire podcast. I
asked him a question about him, and he's gonna tell
us a story about some person who he wants to
make sure they get credit for being in this rice.
Bast young, Uh, you're humble. I'm talking about you and
how you got the job working with doctor King and
that grants you got from your church. You what does

(07:40):
this have to do with with the what's her name
September clarkpt Clark?

Speaker 2 (07:45):
What it has to do with I wouldn't have thought
about the grant until I met her.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Ah, you need to shut up with money.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Wealth Wealth at its best it comes when you problem
and you realize that what's missing in that equation is
the amount of money available, Okay, And so that's what
brought me to Martin Luther King.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Really.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
I then said SCLC did not have five oh one
C three right, and so I went to my.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Denomination a nonprofit designation. Probably one C three is a
nonprofit corporate designation. Did you know that, by the way,
for SELC, doctor King's organization did not have a non
profit designation.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, he had just come from Montgomery to Atlanta. He
stayed in Montgomery till almost nineteen sixty one, and he
came back to Atlanta, and I was starting an office
from scratch when when they talked to me, he didn't

(08:57):
even have an office in Atlanta, and they came to
see me in New York. I was working with the
National Council of Churches at my denominational headquarters was right
there in New York. So I went over to see them,
and they agreed that they would accept the grant from

(09:17):
the Marshall Field Foundation. And we had schools that had
been built after the Civil War under the American Missionary Association,
and they put up money to repair two or three
of these schools in South Carolina, Frogmore in Dorchester, Liberty

(09:45):
County and Georgia over in Alabama and Perry County, which
is where Marion, Alabama and Selma are related. And so
we fixed up some properties and used them as teaching places.
And then with the money that had been given to

(10:09):
us by the Marshall Field Foundation, she and I and
Dorothy Cotton drove from Charleston all the way over to
New Orleans, Louisiana, my hometown, and we stopped every way,
every place, and we were looking for we were looking

(10:31):
for the people who had PhD minds but who had
never had a formal education. And believe it or not,
they're in a single town in the South where there
wasn't somebody who was absolutely brilliant that everybody looked to
for leadership. Sometimes they had a little education. Most of

(10:54):
the time they had a business. And the people who
were respect in the little towns of country towns, people
places like it a Beena, Mississippi that you might never
have heard for of unless you knew James Bebel, who
ended up working with us in the c in the

(11:17):
Civil Rights movement. These are the children of the sixties.
And I was a little older, but not much. And
that's what brought me to work with Martin Luther King
and parties.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Not telling you because he's humble, is he's I mean,
he's just really he's really smart than everybody else in
the room, and he intimidates people and he's not gonna
tell you this, but there's a certain person I won't
name his name who wanted him fire, who wanted him out.
He was like, look, everybody, got a seat here at
doctor King's office. We don't need you. And he came
back with a grant. This granted talked about to do

(11:50):
nonprofit education. I'm sorry, non violent teaching re tied to
Civil Rice movement. And it was about sixty thousand dollars,
right the grant.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, fifty thousand. Well, and then they gave us another
twenty five and another twenty five. They were giving it
to us as fast as we were spending it.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
And that was a lot of money. Back then. The
whole budget with Doctor King's movement, by the way, was
no more than six hundred thousand dollars in the joy
of the year, and no more for the biggest budget
ever changed the world without doing there, without firing a
shot for the cost of a division or a department
in most major corporations for one year. Anyway, The point
of the story is they've tried to fire him the

(12:29):
first time. He comes back with this grant, and they
couldn't fire him. And Doctor King was like, you got
some money, would you? And you also, you're a good person.
Here go sit right over there.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Well, it was really I operated under the radar. Nobody
knew I had the money except doctor King and doctor
may Is, the president of Morehouse. And I was really
writing checks on the church yep to rent a bus,

(13:01):
for instance, the sponsor of the grant, to rent a bus,
and we'd rent a Greyhound bus and we'd start in
Louisiana and we'd come back to Charleston or or Dorchester
Suner and we'd take a busloader and keep them from
Sunday to Saturday. And when you brought the brilliant leaders

(13:28):
from all across the South together in one place and
let them interact with each other, you didn't have to teach,
you didn't have to do anything. In fact, as soon
as they started, the people from Albany, they had one
set of freedom songs. Mss Haima from Mississippi had another

(13:49):
set of freedom songs, and everybody started singing and their
freedom songs. Well, that was an education right there. You
had really united at the South. Now we didn't know
we were doing it, but this is the way the
Lord works, even with money and with people, poor people

(14:10):
and black people especially.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
And here's another way that Lord works, because the Lord
works through people. So again, once again i'm talking about
Himastor Young, he's talking about everybody else. By the way,
while we're watching this, I want you to do something.
Don't do it if you're driving, but you're sitting around
with your family. It's Google search doctor Martin la King Jr.
And Andrew Young, or just doctor Martin the King Jr.
You'll see in most of the photos Andrew Young is

(14:32):
next to him, never looking at the camera, looking up,
looking sideways, looking down, he's looking for a threat, trying
to help his friend. He's never trying to get attention.
What is he doing now? Not trying to give attention
to himself? Talk about everybody else. Here's a message. We're
talking about money. I said, don't focus on the money,
boks on the mindset. So the mindset of this conversation
is doctor King loved him because he was the once

(14:56):
he had his own money. Now, this is what they
didn't think about this that way back then. It's just
the reality. Once he had his own money, Andrew Young
to be a free thinker because you couldn't fire him.
If doctor King's all giving speeches in the in the
in the the bully in the office can bully everybody
around because he can fire him, well, they gonna fall
in line. Well, the one person who could say whatever

(15:16):
he wanted to whomever he wanted, whenever he wanted, however
he wanted without raising his voice, but talk without with
principal was Andrew Young. Not only because that's the way
he was built. He's really smart, but he had his
own budget. So doctor King could come back in the
office and say, Andy, what do you think he called him? Man?

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Well, of course the other thing is that I sort
of was raised with the minetro. There's no limit to
what you can accomplish if you don't mind who gets
the credit, right, And I heard that from my daddy. Yeah,
and like with my grandchildren, and I have to tell
them right now. They get upset, and I said, don't

(15:53):
get mad. When you get upset, stop, take three deep
breaths and say to myself, don't get mad, get smart,
turn your emotions off, and let your mind work.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
So let's give another mindset lesson. Because if you're got
a successful career and you're in your corporate office or
your business officer, you're working for your employer and he
pisses you off, or she upsets you and you pop
off at the mouth, or worse you, they upset you
and you touch them, your your career is done. You're done,
you've won the battle, you've lost the ward. Never be emotional.
So what did your dad? What was that that? There's

(16:37):
a mindset lesson? You're on wealth building your You were
getting upset about something and your dad hits you.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Slapt you. He just slapped me, he said, Remember.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Was it was it a fake boxing thing or was
it a thing.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
He'd always say, if you lose your temper in a fight,
you're gonna lose the fight. And he I'm older than that.
But the best illustration was Muhammad Ali and Sonny listen, Yeah,
because my father said, I said, Daddy, I don't know
whether Muhammad can beat him. He said, yeah, you'll probably

(17:11):
not hime out in the first couple of rounds. I said,
it's big and bad as Sonny listened, and he said, yeah,
but Senator listening is angry and Muhammad Ali is using
his mind. Don't get mad, get smart, he said, Sonny listens,
want to running later and do something stupid? Yes, when

(17:31):
Muhammad Al Yeah, and he's gone.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Right right, and then then in this step away because
then and wait for the next moment, Bapa Papa can.
By the way, every great athlete that you admire, Michael Jordan,
Maggie Johnson, whoever the athlete is you admire, my friend
Reggie Jackson, who will be interviewing on this podcast soon,
all thinkers, Yeah, they're great athletes, but it's not just uh,

(17:55):
it's not just athletic abilities will make you one of
the best in the world. We're staying there. Who's a
differend of his was a good friend of ours here
and your friend.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
But my grandson, who was at the time about ten
years old, noticed that he was holding his bat in
a statue different from anybody, and he said, Grandpa, can
I go see him was there? And I want to

(18:26):
ask him why he holds his bat that way. And
he spent a half hour talking with a ten year
old about why he held the bat situation. And there
were little things that he passed on to it that
when he got through with the Sunday paper, he didn't
just throw it away. He squashed it up one sheet

(18:48):
at a time. Because when you take a Sunday paper
and he squeeze one sheet at a time, you get
one of the best exercises you can for your wrists
and you and your four awe. And they were all
kind of course with Hank Aaron, his started as a

(19:08):
kid six years old. He had to chop the wood
for his mama to cut the breakfast. So that for
all of these are reasons why, yeah, he became a
great hit.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
And and Hank Aaron never lost his school, by the way,
and Bassie Young does not leave lose his school. And
he's taught me to step over mess and on in it.
I remember one day we were he's a good line.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
I didn't I didn't teach you that what's made that up? Yourself?
Step over mess and that.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
In it, yes, yes, don't win the battle and lose
the war. So we were in Washington, d C. President
Bush was the son was the president, and he had
promised me that he was going to make financial literacy
the policy of the US federal government. And several months
had passed by since he had made the promise. I
was in the cabinet room with all the members of
the cabinet. I thought, because of the president, like a

(20:00):
king in England or something that happens instantly, that's not
the way it happens as a process. And Basht Young
was in town, as he always was in Washington, doing
some fancy business, and I went to go see him
at his hotel and it was the only time he's
ever gotten upset with me. And Bashil Young said, well,
so how things going. Ah, All these people aren't serious.
This is I'm not sure this is gonna work out.
I mean, I'm tired of this and he's and he said,

(20:22):
stop it, John, He said, look, be skeptical, but don't
be cynical, because if you're cynical, you've lost hope. And
he said, this is not about me, it's about we.
This is not about you, it's about us. So your
job is to assume that man, the president is a
good man with bad counsel. You go in there and

(20:43):
give that man good counsel and wait for the political
opportunity to make him look good. Remember that he's like,
get it, get out of my get out of my rooms.
I go to sleep, And that changed my own mindset.
Don't be cynical, be skeptical. Don't be cynical. Even the
Lord wants you to be skeptical. We can question them
all you want, but don't be cynical. Right and because

(21:06):
that's lost hope and the most dangerous personal world is
personal no hope, and you don't want to make a
decisions emotionally. Bastally. On is one of the most cool headed,
sometimes to me, sometimes for me, too cool headed, because
I think people take advantage of them. He don't care
people are you know, take it you know anyway. I
think a lot more could get done if he helped
people to be accountable. But it's not his style, and

(21:29):
his style has worked, as he reminds me of the time,
work pretty well for him in his world. In his life,
he is known all over this world. Being one hundred
and fifty countries, has played a part of history in
dozens of countries. Zimbabwe, Cuba, the Panama Canal. All this stuff,

(21:49):
some of which we had to read about, some of
which we'd have to tell you about in any case.
And by the way, go watch go read the book.
What's my favorite book, the black one with the red lettering?
Your book? You wrote an Easy Burden. Yeah, read and
re read an Easy Burden. It's a great book. Now
let's go back to lessons. It's all about mindset, mindset,

(22:10):
sharpening your mindset. So I'm just gonna we don't have
time in the our podcast to go through his whole history.
This could be literally a podcast series once a day
for five years. You wouldn't get tough all of Andrew
Young's stories and his lessons, but a couple of them.
So he just gave you one about his father. Uh
So that means you got to you love your son,
but also hold them accountable, holding the highest standards. Love

(22:31):
and discipline, love and responsibility, love and accountability. I really
respect me to learn to like me than like me.
Never respect me like emotions that could, but high standards, discipline,
uh and high spiritations are even better form of love.
With a young black man. He's in South he's with
doctor King. Now he's a doctor King is now as
now identify him as a freethinker who will give him

(22:55):
whill tell the truth? Doctor King, by the way, he
didn't like conflict. The one time Doctor King got upset
with you that this is not the lesson, but it's
just a funny antidote. It's only one time that doctor
King got upset with you. What was at that time, I.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Don't want to say what it was, but who Everybody
wanted to go to Mississippi because James Meredith had gotten
shot and we were also in We were working in Cleveland,
and we were working in Chicago, and we were working

(23:29):
in the state of Georgia and Alabama, and we only
had thirty people on the stairs.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Wow, and I have four hundred.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Everybody got nervous and upset about James Meredith getting shot,
and they wanted to stop everything and go ten to Meredith. Well,
I was disgusted and said, okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
He didn't say let's go. He says, you know what,
you get the point.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
And doctor King said, just a minute. I got to
run to the bathroom. And then he said, and he
meet me in my office and I said, uh, okay.
So when I get into office, he said, what in
the world are you doing? He said, don't you know
we got four movements going and you want to you

(24:23):
just let the whole staff run to Mississippi because they
got emotionally upset about James Merritt. Now it turned out
James Mrida didn't get killed, and he was out there
walking by himself. He had not consulted with anybody about anything,
and it was it was I'm miscalculated, I thought, egotistical

(24:49):
move and he did too well. When I said let's go,
he said, Now you got me running all the way
over to me Mississippi week that stuff to do in
Chicago and Cleveland, uh, and still in Birmingham, and have
me even started good Atlanta?

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
And he said, I don't need you. If you're going
to be.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
A week need punk.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, well, yeah, he didn't. He didn't say that. He said,
if you're going to go along with everybody, then I
don't need you. He said, I need somebody to tell
the whatever is the bad news, Let's focus on what
are the difficult? Is it a problem? That's what I need.

(25:41):
I don't need everybody to agree. I need somebody to
disagree and have a reasonable disagreement. Then I can make
the decision as to where we come down between left
and right.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
That's beautiful. So he really was? He really was?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
They he said, he said, they call you anum with Tom.
That's what I need. He said. Uncle Tom was a
reasonable man. He may not have had courage, but he
had reason and before he had a movement, a black
man better be using his head to reason his way

(26:21):
through his problems.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
And for anybody in here you want a quick history lesson,
go research who Uncle Tom actually was. This is a
great example of somebody turning your legacy upside down and
lying to you. Uncle Tom was a bad dude, that was.
That was a real name, obviously. But the guy who
call Uncle Tom was was actually a slave who freed
himself and created an underground rail, an underground passageway to Canada,

(26:48):
and took a bunch of former slaves to freedom in
Canada and created a school on real Estates a bad boy.
Then they turned it into this this caricature some folks did,
I want to say who they were racist and made
it into this character that supposedly other time was a
negative thing. That brother was bad, bad, bad, bad, Now smart,
really smart. And some folks will say, what, Andy, you

(27:12):
weren't arrested in the movie, by the way, Not true.
He was also beat up in Florida, so in Saint
Augustine with an inch of his life. But that's not true.
It's not the point. They said, Oh Andy, you knew
what the rest. Doctor King didn't want him arrested. Please
get this part of the memo. That was the one
guy he did not want arrested because he was a

(27:34):
thinker and he did what I just told. So doctor
King would go go ahead, because.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Everybody's going to jail. Who's going to run stuff out?
You know, who's going to run things outside of jail? Yes,
you never could get everybody in jail, and you had
to keep the movement going, and Doctor King couldn't be
out keeping it going. Yeah, so I'd have to run
to the jail every day, sometimes two or three times

(27:59):
a day, and that wasn't easy. But well it was
easy for me because I had learned to deal with
the crazy policeman. And you know the same thing my
daddy said, don't get mad, get you Mark. And in
one of the things he said, if the police I'm

(28:20):
a little boy in New Orleans ten twelve years old,
he said, if a policeman stops you call him by name,
look at his name tag, and don't say officer policeman,
say officer Brown, officer, Jones, officer this, or if his sergeant,
make his sergeant and call him by his name and

(28:43):
give him the respect of a title, and you'll be surprised.
That makes it easier for him to give you respect
because you have given, you have extended him the respect
of his title and his and recognize really his experience
in his leadership.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
And this played out literally when doctor King was in
jail a couple of times you couldn't get in, No
one could get in to see him. That the racist
police officers were well being racist, and you sweet talked
your way in without giving up your own dignity. The
one time I remember was tied to the letter from
a Birmingham jail. I believe, no, no.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
This was in Albany in Albany. In Albany, it well
one when I went to see him one he would
let me go to jail with him. He said, no,
you have to stay out, and you have to come
in and see me at least twice a day. And
I said, when I went in, the sergeant said, part

(29:42):
keeping alive, by the way, a little nuggery here. It
was sitting big niggas about. Then what do I do?

Speaker 1 (29:52):
By the way, that's a direct quote. And so.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
I went back and I told doctor King what he said.
He said, Look, I don't care what he called you.
You got to get in here twice a day. So
when I went out, I remember what my data said,
and I said, thank you very much. Sergeant Hamilton test
I saw his name day and the next day I

(30:16):
walked in and I greeted him, How you doing today,
Sergeant Hamilton? And then I changed the subject all agother.
I said, you know, as big as you are, you
had to play football somewhere. Well, if it's one thing
black folk and white folk get along with in the South,

(30:37):
it's football. And he said, and he's one. He smiled.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Oh, for the first time, the.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
First time he smiled. He said, yeah, I was a
tackle down at Valdosta State. Well, Valdosta had the lot.
They had three hundred pound linemen in their high school
truck team, when the Green Bay Packers didn't have that
many people in the front said these are big, burly guys.
But because of that, I didn't want to rough him

(31:06):
up and make him angry. So we talked about football,
and then I said, oh, by the way, is it
all right? Oh? He said yeah, going back, and when
I came out about the third time that happened, I
came out. He said, you know, I hate to ask
you this, but the sheriff said that he's been listening

(31:27):
to us talking out here, and he wonders if you
would find coming to talk to him.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
And so I had to go knock on the sheriff's
door and he invited me in, and he didn't want
to talk to me about doctor King. He didn't want
to talk to me about the civil rights movement. He said,
you know, I need somebody's advice, and I hate to
take advantage of you. I said, no, what's up? He said,

(31:56):
you know, I got married and I married a little
girl who's the Castholic, and she's upset with me because
of what I'm doing here with the civil rights and
the civil and uh. And I talked to him. It
was about a half an hour, and I told him that,

(32:19):
you know, you may need to listen to her a
little bit, but I didn't put it all on her.
I said, you have to understand that everybody in town
has a position on you, and some of them like
you and some of them don't like you. But you're
the sheriff. You've got to represent the law as it

(32:43):
states right now. Yeah, and it but anyway, you gave
him a gracious way out. I gave him a faith
saving way out. Yes, yes, Now, when when all of
this was old, it wasn't eve bothol, It wasn't six months.
I got a call from Winston Salem, North Carolina, and

(33:04):
a friend of mine was saying, Andy that we're trying
to get a new police chief here. I said, yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
He said, please listen, everybody listen.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
He said the police chief that applied was the same
sum bitch that we're dealing with you all down in Albany.
And he said, I said yeah. He and I talked
a lot, and he said, but he put your name
down as a reference, so wow, And I said a
reference for what And he said, we want to integrate

(33:39):
the police force. No way, and he applied for the job.
And I said, well, I know this sounds crazy, but.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Hey man, we want to integrate the police force in
Winston Salem. But he say, is the white this captain?
Was this?

Speaker 2 (33:55):
This? This is a black friend of Martin Luther. King's
calling me, oh, se asking this some bitch puts your
name down to the reference. What do you but you're
trying trying to integrate into this And they were trying
to integrate the police force in Winston Salem. They had
no black police.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Right And so this guy applied for the job to
lead it.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
For the job to be chief and Winston Salem.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
And this guy puts you down at the reference, put
me down to the reference. Who's now are you now,
Ambassador Andrew Young?

Speaker 2 (34:26):
At this point no, I was still I was still
six months later.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, okay, go ahead. Sorry, And.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
I said, well, you know, it depends if you're going
to have a lot of whites officers rebelling against integration.
I said, he might be a guy with the authority.
He has a reputation which is not true. But he

(34:57):
stood up against Martin Luther king, and at least he
was non violent. And I said, we.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Actually he called your nigga, didn't beat you like one.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
He didn't call man nigga. Was there was the others,
the other chiefs, the other story death sergeant right. And
I said, really, if you give him a chance, make
sure he wants to desegregate the police force, and if
he can convince you that he's he's interested in having

(35:30):
a black and white police force, male and female. I said,
he's got the credentials to probably pull it all for you.
This is the nineteen sixties. Yeah, all this was between
nineteen sixty in about nineteen well, we were sixty two,
we win allbody. Then after Montgomery this was probably I

(35:53):
mean after Birmingham, this was probably sixty three or sixty four.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Unbelievable. Did you turn this around so much? This guy
fuged you as his counselor and someone for whom he
respected enough to put you down as a reference for
a job. That's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Well, let me tell you this that there is not
a person in the world I don't believe I have
brought into that isn't anxious to talk with somebody different
quietly and secretly because everybody's got problems about somebody else.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, but it's not everybody for someone that can carry yourself.
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Well, a reporter, reporter for well, he was the editor
of the New York Times, wrote a story and.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Weekly it's Times weekly. Yeah, yeah, that New York Times Weekly.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
That where he he talked about the sixteen year old
black woman who educated him all race wow. When he
was between she was his babysitter between six to ten,
and she taught him about the race problem. Yes, and

(37:22):
now he's the editor of the New York Times. While
saying and wrote a beautiful article about how this young
black woman was the one who made him sensitive to
all of the racism that was coming into him from
his school and his church and everywhere else.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
So BASHT. Young gives me credit for this quote I'm
about to use, which I lifted from nineteen forties on
a book by C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity. But talk
without being offensive, listen without being defensive, and always leave
even your adversary with their digging. Because if you don't
talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive, and always

(38:08):
leave even your adversary with their dignity, otherwise they will
spend the rest of their life working to make you miserable.
It becomes personal. And what you just heard there was
a lesson in leadership and effectiveness. Because doctor King, I
mean invest you. The doctor King would say that these
radicals who are on the staff of their celc Negroes,

(38:30):
what's wrong with you? Don't you know we don't have
an army. They have an army. We have thirty sixty
seventy people with no money in the bank, and they
got the entire budget of the largest government in the world,
the largest military in the world. What do you think
you're gonna do emotionally? Gonna slap you use You're gonna
slap them. They gonna shoot you. You're gonna shoot you.
They're gonna blow them. They're gonna shoot them. They're gonna
blow you up. Like this does not end well for us.

(38:51):
We've got to be smarter. We gotta use out on
our hands, but use think from the shoulders up, not
the shoulders down. And you need win win, not win lose.
It is one of the problems of today's so called
civil rights leaders, some of them is they want somebody
to lose, and they want to win it that that
that's not gonna end. Well you you everybody has to
have a sense of dignity and a gracious way out,
even if they have a wrong business plan. And what

(39:14):
you just heard was one of just but one of
the the lesser known examples of that. And I want
to make sure that before we got out of time
we get to several examples, because we get again, this
could be a whole series on Andrew Young lessons, and
maybe we should do that on leadership. But uh, there
was that example. Then this for no particular reason, I
know when doctor King was in that was in that prison.

(39:36):
Uh he was in jail over with all the pastors
talking bad about him. Uh. He stept over mess not
in it. And he wrote on the on the edges
of toilet tissue and the newspaper. Is that right? And
and smuggled it out through you, Uh, the the notes
on toilet tissue and on the edges of the newspaper, which,

(39:57):
by the way, the staff balled up and threw away.
Can you believe this, this historic stand not him but
with the staff throw it away. Anyway, he smuggled it
out through Andrew Young. And that if you want to
read something great. Everybody read letter from Birmingham Jail where
doctor King steps over miss and not in it and
leaves the pastors criticizing him a gracious way out of

(40:20):
their own I think incompetence.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
But after that letter from the Birmingham Jail he really
had laid out. In the first place, the people in
Birmingham had written their own Birmingham Manifesto and it was
very simple language. But they wanted to vote. They wanted
to be able to go to the to the city
Hall without being discourteously treated by the police. They wanted

(40:47):
you know, they wanted to be good citizens right. And
the church leaders, white church leaders then wrote a letter
condemning Martin Luther King, saying that they wanted to do
all of this, but he would let him because he

(41:09):
has stirred up all of this trouble. Well, the end
result was that his letter actually gave them a faith
saving way out. And when we started the negotiations we
had three documents to deal with. One was written by

(41:31):
the people on the streets and the preachers and the
ordinary folk. Other was written by the white preachers which
stated their position, and the third one was the letter
from a Birmingham Jail, in which Martin Luther King basically

(41:52):
took over the whole argument and gave everybody a faith
saving way out.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Wow. So the guy they're trying to hold down lifted
everybody else up.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
But that's that was in March of nineteen sixty three. Okay,
one year later, in sixty four, the Congress to all

(42:24):
of this debate and dialogue and produced the nineteen sixty
four Civil Rights Act, which you segregated the whole South.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Now, by the way, lesson here all these you were,
you know, slamming on desks and marching and screaming and
setting fire to this and setting fire to that, and
black power. By the way, Malcolm X really wanted to
hang There's a big picture of this photo Malcolm X
in my office right here. I much respect to him.
But Malcolm X really wanted to hang out with doctor King.
That's the true story behind. After all the rhetoric, he

(42:55):
was trying to get through doctor King, through Andrew Young,
and there was one faithful meeting when they ran across
each other. Congress anyway, that's maybe another video for another time,
but I want you to know that that of all
that hooping and the Holler. The one group that actually
got results for civil rights bills. One, Doctor King was
passed away, the Open Housing Act, but the three civil
rights bills, well, Doctor King was alive. I'm sorry. The
three civil rights bills that I got that passed was

(43:17):
the Doctor King. Andrew Young strategy and John Lewis strategy.
Give him credit, of course, because he was with He
was with Snick, right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
John Lewis. By the time, John Lewis was always he
was very much like Martin Luther King. He was elected
by Snick, but he didn't see himself as representing the
Student on Violent Coordinating Committee. He saw himself as representing
the best of the movement had at all of yes,

(43:48):
and so he was always calling on them to be
a little more courageous, yes, a little more reasonable, right,
a little bit more high minded.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Look, you guys got to tell me whether you want
us to continue this and do this another time. Maybe
I'll talk him into coming back again. Maybe would do
Andrew Young leadership? Listen, none yet yet? Have I done yet?
Before we wrapped today's segment up, we got covered two things.
Just putting on the records. We don't need he don't
lead this into another direction.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
One.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
I want to talk about his role in the in
free enterprisees, role in the civil rights movement itself. It's
a little known, almost a completely unknown story that he
won't The only way he's gonna let me even talk
about him and give him a credit is to bring
in the facts that he cannot change, because it is
the facts about the role of free enterprise played in

(44:37):
the successes of the Civil rights movement, little known facts.
It wasn't the government that integrated the South, it was
the private sector, and so we didn't get into that.
And number two hided all that morph until the only
mayor mentored by doctor Martin Luther King Junior in the
history of America, which is Andrew Young and bachelor Andrew Young.
Uh and and what did that manifest into? Like, what

(44:58):
did that experiment turn into? Well, of course we're in Atlanta.
Just came off Andrew Young International Boulevard, and we know
that Atlanta is the most successful, i'll say it, black
city in the world, black lead city, black and spire city.
We we we invite everybody here. By the way, the
color is green. But I want to get to those

(45:18):
two things before we before we finished.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Let me let me start with the one thing.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Okay, but hold on seeah have high sepes steam roun Andrew. You,
I do want to mention that no limit to what
you can accomplish when you don't talk.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
No, if you don't mind, who gets the creditor.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Yeah, well you said that all.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Yeah, except that you talked about me doing all this
in Atlanta. But we've had nine black mayors. Well I know,
I know, uh and.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
And they're all great and there in their own ways.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
And they're always and it always worked together the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Yeah, but that was you that nobody.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Everybody.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Everybody said, oh, even the other mayors. I was Bill
Campbell today, Andrew Andrea Dickens mayor, and Trew Dickins are
mayor today, Shirley Frank Franklin, even Manor Jackson, who was
the who created black wealth. They all would say, God
filled the God would God.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
I was the oldest.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
No, no, you're you're the only look this man. Because
he was the UN ambassador. He knew all the he
knew of getting off script now anyway at a set
him straight because he just gave you some some some
messy mess. He was a UN ambassador, the black first
black one in the world. He knew all these heads
of states, he knew all the countries. So when they
trying to win the Olympics Games, it's about relationship capital,

(46:33):
not just the best proposal. He could call all these
folks up and he did and get their votes, and
he needed they needed I think one hundred votes or
something like that to get the Olympic Games.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Oh, we needed a majority of eighty five.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
All right, same thing, one hundred votes eighty.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Five, Yeah, but we got fifty five.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Right, because he knew everybody.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Because there were fifty five people that we had relationships
with through the him, through Ted Turner.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
The Civil Rights movie didn't have no international relationships. That
was Andrew Young.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
No, but Ted Turner one. Jimmy Carter pulled the out
of the Olympics. Ted Turner wet against him and took
them on to Russia for the Good Will Games. So
Ted Turner, I had sixteen votes in Russia. I had

(47:26):
nineteen votes in Africa. Right, that's Morman mo.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
So it worked. Now you should also know that when
Nelson Mandela another again another thing about mindset. Nelson Mandela
went to President of Prison, an angry black man in
forty seven, say there twenty seven years and by the

(47:53):
time he got out, the prison guards were calling it
Mandela University, calling the prison Nelson Mandela University because they
learned so much from this man. Think about with that
that sergeant, that captain, well, the sergeant respected Andrew Young,
and the captain wanted to meet with Andrew Young and
then put him down as a reference. Again, you turn.
You flipped the script, right, You flip the script all

(48:14):
the time when you're being run out of town, get
in front of the crowd, made like a parade. Doctor
King is going in these towns and he basically my
version of the describing it shutting down the economy. It
wasn't his intention. He was trying to disrupt injustice in
a non violent way. They shut down the economy because
sixty percent of the people in these small towns were black,

(48:35):
so they got to sit in the back of the bus.
But the color to get the color of green to
get on the bus was still green. So there wasn't
no white people to sustain the economy. So when you
shut down the economy for six weeks, the whole place
is in pain.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
But this was a year three and eighty two days
that they did not buy anything but food or medicine.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Which one is this?

Speaker 2 (48:58):
That was a Montgomery and An association in nineteen fifty five,
that was before you, that was before me. But the
thing is that too was God's accident. The spirit and
moving through Rosa Parks just never legend anything this week
and it was just and there were people who had

(49:22):
had done that before she did, but they didn't.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
He's giving credit again by the way, this is he
can't help it.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Well, no, I want people to know that this that
freedom is a team sport.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yes, whoa dropped the mic.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Thee freedom is a team sport.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Well, that's beautiful. That freedom fighting is a team sport.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah. Yeah, but even get fighting for freedom and.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
He can't can't have a momentary freedom high You gotta
do it consistently, can't being doing it for a moment.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Yeah, for instance, looking at it now right now, we
we kind of messed up and got two or three
Republican presidents in there, and we've lost the Supreme Court.
So the sixty four Civil Rights Acts and the sixty

(50:25):
five Civil Rights Act have been modified by that court.
That was modified by Republicans. Now let me go back
and say Republicans created the first court that gave us
the civil rights.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Well, Republicans were the ones who actually kind of Republicans
were the ones who Abraham Lincoln, I mean it was
against slave reading the Civil War and man eisenhowerteen sixty right,
oh really, no, nineteen fifty four, that was an Eisenhower
appointed court. When you say, and now I was a Republican,
I didn't know how I was a Republican, but every

(51:04):
kind of Republican, well, he was the kind of Republican
that came from Abraham Lincoln. Right, But then that flipped
all that. Whether he had Dixiecrats, who were were also
not great, not really great what you call democrats they were,
they were the problem. These guys flipped the political agenda. Also,
you know, blacks became supportive of blacks, supportive Republicans because

(51:25):
Abraham Lincoln gave a freedom. Blacks supported Democrats because because
because Democrats gave him civil rights and social justice through
this is like, this is like one of the founders
of America. This is like one of the the framers
of the Constitution. Because like George Washington's in here, by
the way that and we're going to get to these
last two points, but that.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
John Kennedy got elected because he picked up the phone
and call whole corrella. Yes, Martin was in jail, and
Daddy King said, I never an a preacher to pick
up the phone and call a colored woman whose husband
was in jail.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
A preacher or president. You said, you never know a preacher.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
He met a president, well, a president, but he said
that he called the preacher, Okay, I said, to see
about somebody in jail, and he said, I think I'm
gonna throw all of my votes for this castolic boy.
And that was the week or so before the election,

(52:34):
and that supposedly swung the vote to Kennedy.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Yeah, I remember that that the president kennidate, candidate Kennedy
had called Coreta she suggest his support. Right. So look,
so now Andrew Young's in the movement you've already talked to,
you are talked about. He was a free thinker and
all that kind of stuff, and and he was there.
He was a consctly eddy inside of the staff, the
negotiated the He's always been the ambassador, he's always been

(53:01):
the bridge builder. He's always been the guy who's talking
to the person nobody can talk to and finding common ground.
That's always been his deal. Okay, he's graciously kind, unlike me,
and so now he's in the movement. Doctor King has
shut down once again the economy in another city, and
Doctor King says to Andy, he calls him Andy, I
call him Ambassador Young, even though he's my play father,

(53:21):
my servant, my personal hero, my friend. Loved this dude,
you know, really raised me my adult life. But I
call him ambassador Andrew Young out of respect. Now, doctor
King says to Andy, his friend Andy, I need to
take those overalls off and put a business foodo or
shooting suit and tie and go meet with those business
leaders behind closed doors when nobody knows is there, and

(53:44):
cut a deal to take the whites only signs down, Andy.
And it was one hundred business leaders in those times
and on that well, it.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Ended up being one hundred. But to start out with ten, okay,
and it was five or six black preaches, but Martin
Luther King and there were about ten white ministers and
business people that came together to sit down to negotiate

(54:13):
and into the black and white signs over lunch counter,
for instance, over the water fountain. They negotiated on a
time schedule, say in the next one of those little
things too, that the little things on a big ski scale.

(54:36):
But in every one of these department stores there were
black women who were maids, and the black women couldn't
sell things. And they bring in these white college students
and they let them sell goods and get a commission.

(54:58):
But the black women had to wear smocks and they
had to go get them when somebody sent them to them.
And but every one of these business people knew that
they could not run their stores with all these black women. Wow.
And that the kids they brought in from Alabama and

(55:19):
Birmingham and Auburn nice salespeople. But they didn't last long.
And when they realized that they couldn't work, they couldn't
run a store without the black folk hm. And they

(55:40):
agreed to let the black folk put on dresses and
sell and get a commission.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
So what you just heard, now, everybody, is real talk.
That's like, this is like, this is real talking. Further
Action's integration, it's economic integration. This is this is real
DEI diversity, equal inclusion. This ain't no program, no you know,
soft soul.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Unlike the DEEI they said, we were already in it
doing the work that's right, and that we'll just recognize
it was recognized, which is what, which is why I'm
pushing for economic and inclusive economics, which is recognizing that
we live said that capitalism could not exist without black

(56:24):
and brown people.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Without question, without question, there's not enough successful, college educated
white men the drive GDP gross domestic product for the
next thirty years. And that's not a racial comment, it's
just mathematically impossible. The free enterprise system meets all of
God's children God, as you tell me a great Andrew
Young quote, coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. And

(56:46):
isn't it ironic that at this moment in time that,
for the first time in history, the biggest economy in
the world and the soul superpower cannot continue to succeed
for thirty or forty more years and be the light
on the heel without teaching financial literacy to black and
brown children at the bottom of the pyramid and women
and poor whites by the way, and letting them come

(57:06):
up the ladder and join the middle class. And some
of them joined the wealthy class like I have. And
to be a new symbol for hope and opportunity in
the world. Does the country literally mathematically cannot exist unless
the bottom rise to the top, or at least to
the middle of the next twenty years. Otherwise we'll be
an also ran country, will be the nation that used

(57:26):
to run the world. So my rich white friends eat
my poor black and brown friends, and do better, if
only to stay rich and white, or at least rich,
or to use my colle that Rachel dopv loves so much,
my chiefest staff. If you deal with class, you get
raised for free. So they were dealing with this. They
were way ahead of their times. And doctor King would

(57:47):
set it up and would be publicly recognized rightly so
and quietly behind closed doors. Andrew Young would help to
pay it off by clutting these deals.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Now, what was that If you deal with class.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
You get raised for free. Every now and then I
say something they likes.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
But now the other way around, if you deal with race,
you deal with class, you get classes for free.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yes, that is all so true, but you got to
deal with race in a way that is aspirational, not
just feeling sorry for somebody. It's helping people to fulfill
their untapped potential. And then it's the problem solves itself.
I mean, Jews were a problem until they were treated
like human beings. Italians were a problem until they were
treated like human beings. Polish would I mean, if you

(58:31):
go back one hundred years, white folks were discredited against
when they came to this country and now their mainstream right.
But back one hundred years ago, Jews had to get
good jobs at HBCUs because no one else would hire them.
And that's part, in part why they came to help us,
help you. In the Civil Rights movie, people don't know
that half of the whites supporting doctor King and the

(58:53):
Civil rights when were Jewish. By the way, that was
a black Jewish coalition which needs to be strengthened again.
Keep it reminding folks, there is no black Greek coalition,
there's no black British coalition, and go on and on
and on. There's only a black Jewish coalition. I tell
Jews on the other side, there's no Jewish Italian coalition.
They need less enemies and more friends. We need more

(59:14):
friends and less enemies and together. Oh my god, you know,
nobody's perfect, but how powerful that would be? Again?

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (59:21):
So uh two two final comments. So I watched that
covered one in summary, which was there was it was
a free enterprise system because they were squeeze economically. That
actually broke the back of discrimination to the south and
took the whites only size down because these if you
think about the lunch counters, the soda shops, the bus

(59:43):
companies privately owned back then, uh, their their walls were
hurting and they had they wanted the customers come back,
whether they came to the back door, front door, side door,
and want the country. And that was the deal that
Andrew Young cut. Just wasn't publicized because it was intentionally
not publicized. So the story has never been told. It
was a governor and the mayor standing in the front

(01:00:03):
in the hallways saying over my dead body. So just
the opposite of the government being the solution. All right,
So now you take all these lessons. Let's now in
now you you were in this room, you left the
highest regioncy here having the last meeting on the third
level of the campaign of so doctor King said, I'm
here to redeem the America from the triple evils of war, racism,

(01:00:24):
and poverty. You're now dealing with poverty, more poor whites
America than poor anybody else, and you want to deal
with all poverty for all people. You leave Atlanta, you
go to New York at Harry Belafonte's house, and I'm
now pivoting to this last movement about economics and how
that then led you to ultimately become mayor of Atlanta
and making a difference in the CEO of Atlanta. But
what can you tell the audience? What only you can say,

(01:00:46):
because you're the only person who actually can tell this story.
You're the only person alive who is witnessing this incredibly
important conversation with your friend, doctor King.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
The conversation with doctor King and Bellefonte and Dick Hatcher
and the congressman from Detroit was that you shouldn't have
to have a demonstration of a thousand people or even
one hundred people if you want a street light on

(01:01:18):
the corner, if you want to improve the schools for
your children.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
It's what doctor King was saying.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
This is with doctor King, if you want to improve
the schools for your children, you need to elect people
to the school board. See and that that we need
to take the civil rights movement into politics. And because
politics is who's sitting at the table when the money

(01:01:42):
divide it up. And if you're not, if you don't
have somebody representing you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Did you hear that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Everybody, when the money divided up, you not gonna get
your share. It's human nature.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Politics is what again.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
Who's sitting at the table when the money is divided up?
That's that's a bar that's the Congress, but that's the
city council, that's the board of education, that's the mayor, yeah,
the governor. And they're all elected by your right to vote.

(01:02:20):
And that's the reason your right to vote is absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
And why you should be voting early and often.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Excuse me, but somebody said, what do you tell somebody
that said they don't want nothing to do with politics?
I said, they don't want to be sitting at the table.
They don't want somebody representing them at the table when
the money is being divided up. Excuse my expression, but
that's a dumb motherfucker. Oh my god, that's a barats

(01:02:57):
no other way.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
That's French. By the way, that was French issues. Now
look there you go, and I and I agree with him.
Look if you if you're not at the table, you're
on the menu. Do you hear that? And he gave
his life. Doctor He was on that balcony when Doctor
King was assassiny. Kind of pitched this guy sometimes like
it's like living history. He's on the balcony of Doctor

(01:03:18):
King's assassiny. You're in the marketing lot, Okay, excuse me,
he was on site. You would you were downstairs at
the car because you were. You guys had a pedal
fight in the in the in the bedroom.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Yeah, and then doctor King went upstairs and uh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
You forgot something in the rum or something.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
No, he went up see they were in the under
I mean had his undershirt.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
He didn't have on a shirt and die Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Uh. And he'd been been down that visiting with his brother,
okay and his little brother, his younger brother, and they
had ordered a bunch of catfish. They had about ten
of them, and the big and they were all somebody
had sent in a you know, a cartload of catfish

(01:04:07):
ride catfish. And they were high on each other and
on the spirit. They weren't drinking any alcohol, but they
were silly. And I'd never seen him quite that happy
and and relaxed.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
And it, uh, well, like he gave up the ghost.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
No, it was it was like he was ready to
well at the time, I was convinced that we were
trying to get this movement into politics in order to
have access to the economy. And that's what the court

(01:04:49):
case was about, that we could continue the march the
next day and in Memphis.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
In Memphis, Cobe cam and he never made it to
walk for the first march. They they got distracted. Yeah,
that's a whole we'll do this another podcast where they
actually went to Washington. But that's a whole nother story.
There's a lot of stories here. But anyway, he was
there when all this stuff went down, and unfortunately, when
doctor King was assassinated, he was right there and and

(01:05:17):
they had to call Karta and the whole thing. And
he could have given up and woe was me and
fell sorry for himself. And he had sat there for
twenty years and wrote books and gain speeches about oh
woe is me? And doctor King was shot, he immediately
put those overalls back on and organized, you know, I mean,
if Kreta came and by the way, did the march.
They went back to Atlanta, Uh it is not in chronology,

(01:05:40):
went back to Nana Ranna for the funeral and and
U see it went through a Clark Atlanta University. I'm
on the board now, and doctor Andrew Young is in
those overalls with the uh uh the horse drawn carriage.
Doctor King's cast it on it and honor poor people.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
And they they kept the movement going. They kept the work.
And then you pivoted pervent meeting with it, har Bellefonte
and doctor King saying we got to get beyond marchin
force street light. We need to be at the table.
And you then went to the table. First congressman elected
since reconstruction for I wanted.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
To run three campaigns, say, one in Birmingham, one in Atlanta,
and one in Sabatah. And everybody who was talking about
running for something until they started getting killed. And then
everybody said, you know, the families didn't want him to run.

(01:06:37):
It wasn't a time and nobody wanted to run. So
Tara Belafonte said, looks like you running for Congress. I said,
why me? He said, because nobody else wants to run.
I said, I don't want to run either. He said, yeah,
but you promised Martin Luther King. You agreed with Martin
Luther King that the movement had to move into politics,

(01:07:00):
so you're gonna have to be the one to move it.
I said, well, let's try, which we did. I mean
Atlanta was not a million people.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Yeah, the greater the greater Atlanta area six million people
now plus it wasn't a million people in Greater Atlanta.
And most of Atlanta was uh uh two two lane
highways or dirt some of them were dirt roads. Uh
hour I live now was dirt roads. And you actually
ride his bicycle out there. And probably the problem we
have here is so successful because the infrastructure needs to

(01:07:31):
be upgraded from when from from whin to now.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
But that would be ideal for two billion people in
the metro there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Right, not six million. And the place is exploding because
his vision. We're gonna do it. Meet and promise you.
We're at time, and I want to make say a
couple of things, but we're gonna do I'm gonna I'm
gonna guild him into coming back and just talking about
how to build a city and how to and how
to build an economy? Uh and how did how and
what did he do? What did Mater Jackson do? Because
he likes to hear everybody else credit this, What did

(01:08:00):
this person do. What did that person do? But what
did he do to build Atlanta into the only international
city in the traditional South. People like arguing with me
online about what the South. I don't mean Texas, I
mean that. I don't mean Florida. I mean the traditional South.
You know exactly what I mean, the civil rights South. Okay,
so we're gonna ask him to come back to have
that when you come back, please, Well I'm here. Yes,

(01:08:28):
that's I can tell Andrew young speak that means yes,
if you, if you, if you give him a Coca colaon.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
No, I really I realized that. Well, I'm ninety two
years young, and most of the stuff that we're talking
about not many people know. And I'm not saying this
to be critical. There's been a lot of books written,
but most of the books were written by people who

(01:08:55):
were not bad whoa including the books that are under
some of our names, and so've I've been trying to
make sure that we have an accurate reference of.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
Just what happened and why what really happened.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
And that's the reason it's important to give everybody the
little bit of credit that they deserve, because it was
adding up all of those little bit of credits that
made for the major social change. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
Amen, there's so many stories, there's so many lessons on
mindset and leadership.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
I mean, it's not automatic and it's not simple, but
then it is. Because the one thing that I have
about taking credit is I don't believe I knew any
of this. And most of the things that Martin Luther
King did it happened to him because of Rosa Parks,

(01:10:04):
because of Jimmy Lee Jackson, or because of some because
most of the things that happened to me happened because
he gave his life on that balcony and he went
there knowing I think that he might not leave, and
everybody tried to tell him, don't go to Memphis, but

(01:10:26):
he didn't go to Memphis. He went to Glory.

Speaker 1 (01:10:29):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
And then when doctor King one said, it's not about
how long you live, it is how well you lived. Yeah,
and the night before he got shot.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Sixty year since then and he was just thirty nine
years old. This more than sixty years since nineteen sixty eight,
and he's still as much alive today as he was
in nineteen sixty eight, in some ways more so more so.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Just to close us out and we will bring him back.
We need to talk about a number of things we're
going to do. I'm going to try and talk him
into a host series of conversations now to unpack this
and get it documented. But we're gonna deinely come back
and talk about the economy of the city. I do
want you to drop the mic before we close with
this quote about to live in the system of free enterprise.
So we'll come back to that. If you live in

(01:11:14):
this is them a free enterprise which you have to have.
But just to close out the history lesson here on
doctor King and that pivot point in Memphis. The night before,
he gave a speech at Mason Temple where Operation Hope
has a Hope inside location by the way full circle
on civil rights, and he gave a speech there. He

(01:11:35):
didn't want to give the speech, didn't plan on giving
a speech. He was storming outside. He asked somebody else
to give a speech for him, but the crowd wanted
to hear him. They wanted to hear doctor King. And
the call was made back to doctor King at the
hotel Motel Can you please come? The crowd wants you,
And he shows up and the crowd is overwhelming. And

(01:11:56):
that night he gives a speech which which I think
was now called the Mountaintops Speech, and it's the only
time that I'm aware of the doctor King collapsed. And
he collapsed after the speech into the arms of his aides,
just completely exhausted and spent. And he said, I may
not get to the mountaintop with you. I've seen it.
I may not get that with you. I'm paraphrasing, but

(01:12:18):
he was also encouraging and rallying those my.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
People are going to get to the Promised.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Land that part. And so the next day when they
were having the pillow fights, he was so light and
the area it's almost as if he was unburdened and
he was no longer afraid of what might come. And
this is a guy who's unafraid. He's been unafraid of
the day I met. I'm unafraid of whatever comes. He's unbothered, unafraid, unflustered.
He's completely cool. And I get on him because he

(01:12:46):
doesn't take enough credit. He doesn't market himself on his stuff.
He's a living legend. But part of that is his
reason he's still hearing such great help in it, because
he just he doesn't take himself seriously. He takes the
world seriously, doesn't take himself seriously. It's not about himself
and he's not focusing on himself. He lives in the spirit.
I said, Johns, you need a business plan. I've been
doing just fine living in the spirit. John, So you

(01:13:07):
do all that stuff. I'll be I'll be cool. And
you know it. He's not incorrect. And it's only one
time in mest young. Sorry, it's twice he cursed me out.
I've already mentioned it. One time. The other time he
cursed me out. I was giving speeches. I was right,
I was reading speeches and he said, God, dang it.
John didn't say dang put that damn s up down.
You don't sound like doctor King. You're trying to sound

(01:13:27):
like doctor King. You may not know what you're trying
to sound like doctor King. You ain't doctor King. I
knew him. You ain't him. You don't sound nothing in life,
and essentially said, you can't give speeches like doctor King.
He was a pastor, he's a doctor. Degreed that path
that pulp, but you can't. It's not your do. Stop
trying to just read. I'm sorry, just talk, don't read
I said, well, I may miss something, he said. People
don't know what they missed. Remember that, Yeah, they won't

(01:13:48):
know what they missed. Just speak from your heart. They
don't remember what you said, what you wrote, what you felt.
They remember how you made him feel and what you meant.
They may remember how you made him feel. That was
a Maya Angelou quote giving credit. And that's what I've
been doing ever since. I've been doing that ever for
twenty years. And that's what the most notable thing about
my speeches these days is the extemporaneous flow. I never

(01:14:09):
use notes or whatever. It's just all here and here
now and people listening. Everybody with you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
I listen. I think you have some very good ideas.
In fact, I'm looking forward to hearing let's talk a
little more about integrating the.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
Money, integrating the money and on that point, which that
means he's coming back when he just said that, So
give him that quote that you that you that I
think it's gangster as hell you gave me this quote
about I call it financial literacy. You stay have to
live in a system of free enterprise and not to
understand the rule I know your quotes better you and
not to understand the rules of free enterprise must be

(01:14:51):
the very definition of slavery. That sounds like something you
would have said, but you said, I just stolen from him.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
But that's the thing about quotations. The better they are,
the more people repeat them and share them. Yeah, and
that's why we remember. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
I hope you you all remember this, and I hope
you you've been even jogging, you've been cooking, you've been reflecting,
you've been having a family meeting of family conversations and
family time. You've been on the road, you've been at
the house, you've been sitting in bed wherever you are,
listening to your podcast. I hope this has inspired you
and lifted you off, and share it with a friend.

(01:15:36):
Tell everybody about the Money and Wealth series and this
episode in particular, because you just got a history lesson that.
I mean, I have the blessing of being around him
a lot. He tries to avoid you, doesn't work, and
I don't I can't remember. I can't remember this conversation,
all this content in one place. This was This was
truly special, and you were just given this gift. So

(01:16:02):
pass on your blessings, as you would say, very good
Two others Love and Light. This is Ambassador Andrew Young
and the Lesser John O'Brien. This is Batman and Robin
on the Money and Wealth podcast series in this episode
on Black Effect Network. Thank you Charlemagne, thank you iHeartRadio

(01:16:22):
for giving us this platform. Let's spread the word around
the world and put in your comments which you want
to hear. Andrew Young, Reverend Andrew Young, Ambassador Andrew Young
talk about next Love and Light. Money and Wealth with

(01:16:51):
John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.