Andrew Young: My Life, My Destiny

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Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2016

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Andrew Young has worn many hats: pastor, congressman, ambassador & mayor, but his first role in public service was as Martin Luther King Jr’s strategist and negotiator. He was at King’s side for many of the biggest battles of the civil rights movement, and he helped draft and secure the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In this episode, Young shares his unique, personal stories about that turbulent period in our country’s history - from the center of the storm. He pays tribute to the women who were the often unacknowledged backbone of the civil rights struggle. And he recounts his fascinating life story, from his youngest days growing up in New Orleans, where his father taught him to fight racism with brains and heart, to his spiritual revelation at the top of a mountain. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2016

Transcript

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0:00.0	Madame, this child is gifted, and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
0:08.6	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another
0:14.4	chance.
0:15.4	It all was so clear.
0:16.4	It was just like the picture started to form itself.
0:19.7	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
0:27.0	Every day I wake up and decide. Today I'm going to love my life.
0:34.0	Decide.
0:39.0	My advice is if they don't break your leg once when you go in that place stay out of there. And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for,
0:46.3	but boy you better not miss them.
0:49.9	This is what it takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of
0:58.9	Achievement. I'm Alice Winkler. I pulled an interview today from the Academy's vault that has so many memorable stories.
1:08.0	It's hard to know where to start, but honestly, I think this time it makes sense to begin in the middle.
1:15.0	It's 1957 and Andrew Young, recently out of seminary,
1:20.0	is pastor at a little country church in South Georgia.
1:24.0	He's involved at a very local level in the fight for civil rights.
1:28.0	One day he gets an invitation from the Alpha Phi Alpha's,
1:32.0	a prominent African-American fraternity.
1:35.0	They want him to speak at Talladega College in Alabama.
1:39.0	Also invited is a man he's never met before, Martin Luther King Jr.
1:46.3	And I always said they invited him and they didn't think he would come, so they invited me as
1:50.9	a backup and it turned out we both showed up.
	...

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