When I was a columnist in Atlanta, civil rights legend and former Ambassador the Rev. Andrew Young was elected mayor. I asked him to lunch for his take on politicians and others. He was so blunt and honest I didn’t use a lot of it in print. But I admired his frankness.
Fast forward: I am in South Africa when Nelson Mandela died. My driver, body guard and interpreter suggested I go to the notorious Robben Island prison where Mandela and other political prisoners were kept. He talked us and press from around the globe onto a prison boat to cross Table Bay from Cape Town.
I was the only America -based journalist; we were on a bus of press people and a man who had been a political prisoner was taking us on a tour of the infamous island, now a national museum. I sat in the back of the bus in that last bench seat they had. I did it so I could tell my long-time friend, civil rights leader and Congressman, John Lewis I sat in the back of the bus in South Africa, which I knew would make him smile.
The guide said to the press, “Has anyone here heard of a man named Andrew Young?”
I shouted out that Young was mayor of my hometown. “I know him.”
Every other reporter turned and looked at me and throughout the trip asked question about Andy and Lewis and Atlanta. The guide was showing us a building where a Mandela mentor was held under house arrest. Young brought the prisoner’s daughters to America and saw that they got a college education.
I have wanted to tell Young, now 94, in person he made me a media star — and how proud I was of him.
I finally got my chance at a gathering for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. Young was there.
So was Georgia’s other U.S. senator, Raphael Warnock, who mentioned Young was a friend and colleague of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church about a mile away. “I’ve heard of that once, “ said Warnock who is minister there now and where Lewis was a member.
Young was with King when he was assassinated and thought to be the only surviving member of that group.
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