Andrew Young to receive 2011 Trustees Emmy in NYC Feb.25

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“Andrew Young Presents” documentary filmmaker and Southeastern Emmy winner Andrew Young will be honored with The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2011 Trustees Award in New York City on February 25.
 
Flying to the Big Apple to help him celebrate are some of his closest Atlanta friends, including Hank and Billye Aaron, former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, along with current Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
 
Former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw, who chronicled the civil rights icon’s work in his bestseller “Boom! Talking About the Sixties,” will present the Emmy to the former U.N. ambassador.
 
Young is being honored for a lifetime of television work devoted to civil rights issues, including 2009’s “Andrew Young Presents Crossing in St. Augustine.” For the doc, Young revisited the Florida town where he was beaten in June of 1964 after he was sent there by MLK to quell potential disturbances as Congress was poised to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act that summer.
 
After footage of Young’s beating surfaced at a Florida TV station a few years back, he decided to return to St. Augustine to revisit the pivotal point in civil rights history.  The fresh attention the doc gave the chapter in history (many Floridians preferred to ignore the civil rights landmark) created a bond between Joe Boles, the current mayor of St. Augustine and Young.
 
Boles will attend the Emmy presentation and is bringing his own honor for Young too: St. Augustine city leaders recently decided to rename the intersection of St. George Street and King Street where Young was beaten “Andrew Young Crossing.” Boles hopes to unveil the signage in 2014 on the 50th anniversary of the ugly incident.
Of the plans, Young wrote on Facebook: “It is really quite an honor which I appreciate and certainly never expected.”
 
Atlantans wanting to attend the Trustees Award dinner at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers on Feb. 25, can order tickets online (FYI: We hear the Sheraton is also offering an unheard of in NYC $199 per night rate for folks attending the Emmy ceremony).
 

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