SARASOTA, Fla. — When Andrew Young was in his early 30s, he says his friend and colleague Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared a prophetic word about the battle between time and progress that has stuck with him ever since.
“He said we probably won’t make it to 40. But if we make it to 40, we're gon’ have to make it to 100. Because this is almost an impossible task that we've taken upon ourselves,” Young recalled before a crowd at the Sarasota Church of the Redeemer Thursday evening.
Of course, Dr. King did not make it to 40. But Young, now 89, took his words to heart, telling the audience his work is not yet done—and theirs should not be either.
“I'm here to tell you there's no such thing as retirement,” he said. “You do get time off for good behavior, and it may be a little different, but the world is in too much trouble now.”
The former U.N. Ambassador expressed deep concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, emphasizing this war poses new worldwide threats.
“If you're like me, you don't want to face the fact that it's different. That we don't know what war is anymore. We haven't had a chance to think about cybersecurity. I can't keep my cell phone secure,” he said. “How am I going to talk about cybersecurity in all of the contraptions that guide our lives in the so many forms of automation that have evolved from our scientific minds?”
Young, who served alongside Dr. King under the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also recalled his time in Saint Augustine facing the Ku Klux Klan during an SCLC campaign to end segregation in the nation’s oldest city.
“I felt like I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death and not only did I not fear evil, I got kicked and stomped and didn't even have a headache,” he said. “So, I know God's power in physical and emotional and political failures.”
In June of 1964, as the SCLC was demonstrating in St. Augustine, he said Dr. King got word of one particular protest he feared would turn violent. With Congress debating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Young said Dr. King asked him to stop the march.
“But when I got the people there in the church, they were so high, freedom high, that they wanted to march anyway,” he said. “So I said, ‘Oh lord. Maybe if I lead ‘em out to the corner where they can see the Klan, and they hear the shouting and the jumping, I can get them to turn around and go back to the church like they got some sense.'”
Young said he tried to reason with the Ku Klux Klan.
“When I thought I was getting to a place where I was making contact with the leaders, some lil’ somebody came up behind me and blackjacked me, and then I got stomped for I don't know how many minutes,” he said.
He told 10 Tampa Bay the night was one of the best of his life, as he believes the demonstrations pushed Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Young’s leadership throughout the civil rights movement was the foundation of what became a storied career as U.N. Ambassador and two-term mayor of Atlanta.
“It was probably the best thing that could have happened to me,” Young said of his decision to run for mayor.
Although that chapter in his life is behind him, he continues to pull from his past to inspire a new generation.
He met with a group of area students Thursday morning and drew from his former life as a pastor to call on those in attendance to make sure their faith is grounded in service to others.
“The success that we had in moving America this far has created the opportunities which have given you this abundant life,” he said. “And so, to those to whom much has been given, my grandmama said, of them, much is required.”
Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. Like her on Facebook and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. You can also email her at emorrow@10tampabay.com.