Andrew Young reflects on friendship and partnership with Jesse Jackson

The person who stood by Jesse Jackson during some of the most important chapters in the modern civil rights movement is Andrew Young. A former US ambassador to the United Nations, former Atlanta mayor and longtime lieutenant of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jeff Bennett spoke with Young about his work with Jackson.

Jeff Bennett:

Well, let me ask you more about that, because his campaigns in 1984 and 1988 reshaped politics, reshaped the Democratic Party, reshaped coalition politics.

What did his voice as a preacher allow him to do, allow him to say what a traditional politician could not?

Andrew Young:

Well, it wasn’t so much that he was allowed to say anything different. He was basically saying the same thing that Martin Luther King, Jr., his father, and even Martin’s grandfather had been saying years earlier.

But Jesse mixed it with 60s modern jazz and the kind of hip-hop that’s like a give-and-take speech, like you’re preaching to yourself. You ask a question and then give the answer. But he was a very effective speaker, partly because he had a wonderful voice, and he was a really handsome kid.

He spoke the language of youth, which was more rhythmic and give-and-take. And it was funny. He can turn the phrase. “I’m somebody” became an attempt to assert his identity in a society that didn’t really recognize him.

Jeff Bennett:

When history writes about Jesse Jackson, what do you hope people understand about his place in the long arc of the civil rights movement?

Andrew Young:

Well, I think he certainly deserves a place, if not for his presidential run, then for his ability to mobilize large numbers of people.

He was a great speaker in front of a crowd. He was always able to gather a crowd. In fact, every Saturday morning, he would mobilize Chicago churches, first for Operation Bread Baskets and then for Operation Push, which were efforts on his part to integrate the economy of black America into the economy of supermarkets and, in this case, department stores.

He served as an economic prophet before he began his presidential run.

Jeff Bennett:

Ambassador Andrew Young, thank you for your time, sir, and my condolences on the loss of your friend.

Andrew Young:

Thank you.