Andrew Young Presents

A New "Crossing" in St. Augustine

2011-06-07T09:07:00.015-04:00

Friends including former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern and Martin Luther King III will join Andrew Young in Florida this weekend, as the nation's oldest city dedicates a new monument in his honor.

The turn of events comes about two years after Young's controversial, autobiographical documentary "Crossing in St. Augustine" reopened a "lost" chapter of Civil Rights history here and touched off a healing process that took place long ago in many other parts of the country.

Young was beaten and kicked in St. Augustine during the Civil Rights movement, while attempting to cross at the corner of King Street and St. George Street to speak with police officers while leading a non-violent march on the night of March 9, 1964.

Earlier this year, city commissioners voted unanimously to rename the intersection "Andrew Young Crossing," but in addition to putting up a new street sign, they took another step -- no pun intended.

Young's own footprints are incorporated into a spectacular monument designed by Jeremy Marquis, a 25-year-old landscape architect who admits he wasn't familiar with the Civil Rights movement in St. Augustine but became completely engrossed once he started researching it on Google.

Marquis traveled to Atlanta with St. Augustine City Manager John Regan and City Commissioner Errol Jones to ink the bottom of Young's shoes and have him walk down a long piece of paper, capturing not only his footprints but his actual gait.

Those prints were being cast in bronze, as a series of quotations from Young, President Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. were carved in blocks of granite at a company in Elberton, Georgia.

Last week, a section of existing sidewalk at main plaza in St. Augustine, not far from an historic slave market that became a symbol of white resistance during the protests, was demolished and new concrete poured for the monument, inlaid with the bronze footsteps and granite strips.

The public dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. on June 11 happens to be the 47th anniversary of Dr. King's arrest in St. Augustine, and will be the first time his son has returned to the city. As a young boy of only six years old, Martin Luther King III joined his father in Florida to take part in the demonstrations.

The events that took place in St. Augustine in 1964 are credited with passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act, which was being blocked in Congress at the time, and Sen. McGovern was among the lawmakers who voted for, and signed, the bill. He now lives part time in St. Augustine.

Young now serves on a Presidential Commission responsible for planning the St. Augustine's 450th birthday celebration in 2015, and as part of the buildup, city leaders have promised to mount a series of major events in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act in 2014.

Work on the monument was completed by foreman Mark Partin and mason Dale Tedder of the Public Works Department, under the supervision of Charlene Putz, manager of the Streets & Grounds Division.

Andrew Young Receives Emmy for Lifetime Achievement

2011-01-21T10:38:00.015-05:00

Tom Brokaw was among the well known television personalities who took part in a program honoring Ambassador Andrew Young with an Emmy Award for lifetime achievement, presented in New York on Feb. 25.

For more coverage and photographs of the black-tie, gala at the New York Sheraton Hotel & Towers on Feb. 25, click here.

Brokaw, who was a reporter at WSB-TV in Atlanta before joining NBC News, met Ambassador Young while covering the Civil Rights movement and has interviewed him many times over the years -- most recently for a profile in his book about the 1960s, "Boom!"

This Emmy, known as the Trustees Award and not given every year, is the highest honor that can be presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS)

The list of past recipients that includes Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Roone Arledge, Ted Turner, and Dick Parsons -- not to mention Jack Benny and Bob Hope.

Trailer: "Leaving Selma"

2011-01-19T15:57:00.015-05:00

"Leaving Selma," is the first half of Andrew Young's two-part documentary about the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery.

This true story chronicles the little-known facts surrounding "Bloody Sunday," in which peaceful demonstrators, led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams, were severely beaten by Alabama troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge -- an event that sparked outrage around the world and resulted in quick passage of the Voting Rights Act.

"Andrew Young Presents" is a series of quarterly specials seen across the U.S. on over 100 television stations, and worldwide on the American Forces Network and on the Word Network.

The conclusion of this story -- "Stars Fell on Alabama" -- can be seen beginning in April. Later in the year, both parts will be available on a single DVD.

Available on DVD!

2010-12-27T11:24:00.020-05:00

"This goes under the Don’t Miss heading."

- Eleanor Ringel Cater, Atlanta Business Chronicle

"With several Emmy awards under his belt,
Andrew Young could receive at least one more with the screening of his latest documentary."
- M. Alexis Scott,
The Atlanta Daily World

"Hats off to Ambassador Young, who did a great job, once again, with a great film.
Should be viewed by any and all who think racial conflict, or reconciliation,
is alternatively simple, or simply impossible.
An inspiring story."
- John Hope Bryant
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE

"A probing new look at [an] unlikely relationship."
- Richard Eldredge
Atlanta Magazine

Andrew Young's acclaimed documentary, Change in the Wind, is finally available on DVD! Order your copy today from our online store!

It's the little known, true story of Margaret Mitchell and Benjamin E. Mays, two people who lived in the same place, at the same time... but in very different worlds.

She was white. He was black.

She had written a Pulitzer-prizewinning novel criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes. He was one of the fiercest enemies of racism and laid the ground work for the Civil Rights movement in America.

Yet, for nearly a decade, the most famous author in the South corresponded -- secretly -- with the legendary president of Morehouse College... and eventually became one of the most important financial supporters of the traditionally black school.

Anonymously, Margaret Mitchell provided Dr. Benjamin E. Mays with funds to pay for the medical educations of dozens of promising African American men -- a story which only came to light several years ago, and has never fully been told -- until now.

While assisting Ambassador Young with "Change in the Wind," researchers at the University of Georgia (where Mitchell's papers are stored in a restricted collection) discovered previously unknown letters which fill in important gaps and explain the author's evolving view on racial disparity in Georgia and the South.

The story is brought to life through the voice talent of a remarkable cast, led by Academy Award-winning actress Joanne Woodward, as Margaret Mitchell. David Owelow, who reads the Benjamin Mays in the documentary, will soon portray Martin Luther King Jr. in the upcoming motion picture, "Selma," directed by Lee Daniels, a 2010 Academy Award-winner for "Precious."