At the corner of Joseph E. Lowery Blvd. and West End Ave. on the Morehouse College campus Friday, 92-year-old U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young sat and waited for a bus.
He wasn’t alone. Five other Atlanta mayors — Andre Dickens, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Kasim Reed, Bill Campbell and Shirley Franklin — waited by his side.
They gathered on the street outside to get the first glance at the newest edition to MARTA’s fleet of buses that pay tribute to some of the most influential Civil Rights icons.
Covered in black and white photos of his time as an organizer, mayor and federal lawmaker, Young wiped away tears as a bus honoring his life and legacy pulled beside him.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of my life in Atlanta,” he said. “It’s a blessing.”
Young is the only living Civil Rights activist featured on a MARTA bus. He joins the ranks of a handful of other Atlanta titans — including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis — who also have buses dedicated to their impact on the world.
At the unveiling event, Atlanta’s mayors told stories about how Young had touched their lives long before he knew their names.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
“As a young Black man growing up in Atlanta, born and raised in this city, I looked up to Ambassador Andrew Young,” Dickens said as he recalled walking past the ambassador’s photo as an Atlanta public school student. “It inspired me so much that I decided I wanted to be mayor at 16 years old.”
Shirley Franklin, Atlanta’s first female mayor, remembered straining to get a view of Young at the March on Washington when she was 18. Then in 1972, the budding Atlanta politician worked on Young’s congressional campaign.
“One of the things that Andrew Young brings to conversations is hope,” Franklin said Friday. “He sees the upside. He sees the possibilities even in times of trouble.”
Young moved to Atlanta in 1961 and quickly established himself as a key player in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s inner circle after landing a job at King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In 1973, five years after King’s assassination, he was elected as the first Black U.S. congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction. In 1977, while in his third term of what could have been a lifetime seat, President Jimmy Carter appointed him as the first Black United States ambassador to the United Nations.
Afterward, Young, who had by then traveled to more than 50 countries, returned to Atlanta and ran for mayor.
He helped guide those who followed in his footsteps, like Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who he stood alongside when she was sworn in as the 61st.
“At that time and so many times, I know we can all agree, we feel like Ambassador Young belongs only to us,” she said.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
But during Bottoms’ time as a senior adviser in the Biden administration, as she walked through the East Wing, she’d frequently pause at a picture of Young and other Civil Rights leaders huddled in the Oval Office.
“I’m reminded that you belong to us, but you belong to the world, as well,” Bottoms said.
Atlanta’s transportation system may not have ever existed if it wasn’t for Young. The Former mayor was instrumental in rallying voters to pass a mass-transit referendum that only succeeded by a few hundred votes. While serving in Congress, Young helped channel millions in federal dollars to MARTA.
MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood said Friday he hopes the bus serves as a reminder of Young’s legacy and helps the ambassador continue to inspire generations of Atlantans.
“It’s a rolling reminder that throughout our communities, no matter what happens — there may be bumps in the road, there may be challenges, there may be traffic, there may be reckless driving — we are going to move forward,” he said.
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