Photograph by Derek White/Getty Images for Scripps
The Forever Young gala tribute to Andrew Young on May 12 at the Woodruff Arts Center is the latest black tie event honoring the 93-year-old former Atlanta mayor, United Nations ambassador, and civil rights icon. While Young usually eschews such public fusses, he said yes to this particular evening co-chaired by friends Billye Aaron, Billy Payne, and Paul Hagedorn. The evening will raise critical funds for lifesaving care and research for National Jewish Health, the leading respiratory care hospital in the country, based in Denver, Colorado.
The event in Young’s honor will also feature a rare convergence of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and former mayors Keisha Lance Bottoms, Kasim Reed, Shirley Franklin, and Bill Campbell (Atlanta is a media sponsor of the event).
As war between Israel and Hamas rages on in Gaza, Young was in a reflective mood this week while on his way to South Carolina. He spoke to Atlanta about the lessons of his childhood in New Orleans, his work in the civil rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his role as President Jimmy Carter’s ambassador to the United Nations. Young’s 30-month tenure at the U.N. was cut short following his controversial 1979 meeting with Palestine Liberation Organization U.N. observer Zehdi Labib Terzi, while trying to create a path to peace between Palestine and Israel.
This is yet another gala in your honor, sir. Does this ever get old for you?
It does and it doesn’t. I don’t need to be honored and I don’t even want to be honored. At the same time, this is a very tense time in Black-Jewish relationships and it’s not so much me being honored as me having a chance to give my perspective on where we are. I guess I feel like I was born into this. I grew up in New Orleans exactly 50 yards from the headquarters of the Nazi party [the German-American Bund]. My father was a dentist, and most of the dental supply people in New Orleans happened to be Jewish. So it’s been a constant conversation in my life. I was born in 1932 at the beginning of the depression and just before World War II. I couldn’t escape what was happening in Europe. I was raised in an atmosphere where there was a constant discussion of right and wrong. And the United States was not always right. [President] Franklin Roosevelt was my hero with his “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” And yet, for a while, he was not allowing Jews escaping from Europe to come into the United States. It was probably Mrs. Roosevelt who awakened his conscience on that.
One thing that strikes me looking at the gala guest list is every Atlanta mayor is scheduled to attend. It’s rare to see all of those folks under the same roof, isn’t it?
That’s what’s significant about Atlanta. Our city is one place where Black-Jewish relationships have remained very solid. Not just me, but all of Atlanta’s mayors grew up in a very positive Black-Jewish environment. Our business community has always had a commitment to a nonviolent resolution of conflict. That doesn’t mean there’s an endorsement or approval of everything or that we’re all on one side or the other. What it does mean is we’re all dedicated to peace in the Middle East.
You’ve said you were born into this. How so?
For me, it was a matter of sensitivity to the rights of everyone. I went to Israel and Jordan in 1966 because Martin Luther King felt we ought to be involved in trying to bring peace to the Middle East. I met with David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel, and he was ready for a negotiated settlement then, but the Palestinians weren’t. I always say coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. When I went to college in 1947, two things happened—India’s independence from Britain occurred without violence and [United Nations Middle East mediator] Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize for the two-state solution [negotiating the 1949 ceasefire between Israelis and Arabs following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948]. Those are the two influential events I grew up on.
I left my job at the U.N. in 1979 because I got caught in the middle of things. Things were very tense at the time. I had dinner with [Israeli statesman] Shimon Peres at Harry Belafonte’s house. The three of us spent about four hours talking about if we don’t resolve this conflict in our lifetimes, we’re passing this on to our grandchildren. We knew [Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser] Arafat and he knew us, so we ought to get on and do this. But the timing wasn’t right. This was after Camp David [1978’s peace accords] and President Carter’s heroic resolution between Israel and Egypt. I was in the middle of something where both sides wanted to meet together and work for peace. If I had been in Atlanta, that wouldn’t have been a problem. But in New York in 1977, 1978, and 1979, it was. It was not the time. Back then, the state department was still staffed by many of [Nixon and Ford Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger’s people. They were very uncomfortable with President Carter taking on the Camp David issue. They couldn’t do anything about him, but they could stop me. This was not the right place, the right time, nor was I the right person. I did not give my resignation to President Carter because he wouldn’t have accepted it. I gave it to [Secretary of State] Cyrus Vance, who was glad to receive it because, he too, was in the middle.
Given the current state of things in Gaza, many people want to speak out. With your many years in the civil rights movement, what advice can you offer right now?
I have been involved in this issue since 1947 and several times I’ve seen a clear path to peace. We have to lay down our weapons and find a way to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish together as fools. My advice is this—continue to press for peace.
