Much has been written about Andrew Young — preacher, top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., former congressman, U.N. ambassador and a former Atlanta mayor.
But his latest, best-selling book, “Walk in My Shoes: Conversations Between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead” (Palgrave MacMillan, 256 pages), offers a disarmingly unvarnished look at the man, warts and all.
Written with Kabir Sehgal, Young’s 27-year-old investment banker godson whose relationship with “Uncle Andy” stems two decades, Young, now 78, offers advice and meditations on everything from the civil rights movement and today’s politics to finance and the importance of marrying the right person.
With Sehgal listening in, we talked this past week to Young, just back from Nigeria, where he was working with Ted Turner’s U.N. Foundation to fight childhood polio and measles.
Turner will host a book signing for Young and Sehgal at the Carter Center Monday. For more information, see walkinmyshoes.eventbrite.com.
Q: You allowed your godson to expose your unvarnished self, from your foul language to some unflattering personal habits. Why?
A: I didn’t want the book to be phony. I said some outlandish things to provoke him. I like to cuss. When I grew up, I was younger than everyone in school. The only way I could hold my own and get respect was to talk thuggish.
Q: Your godson talked a lot about what he has learned from you. What have you learned from him?
A: I am a reluctant learner, but I have finally agreed that instead of fighting hedge funds and derivatives, we have to make them work for the benefit of humanity and not just for the personal greed of a few.
Q: You say you take a lot of heat for being pro-business and that some civil rights leaders call you a sell-out. Does that hurt your feelings?
A: No. They twist what I am trying to do. I am trying to make the financial system of the United States and the global economy serve more of God’s children, not just the 1 percent who happen to be rich.
Q: You call Dr. King a macroeconomist who had to put the economic goals of the civil rights movement on hold because the political ones were more compelling to the public. Was that the right decision?
A: The only reason we are where we are today is because we did that. For him to have challenged the economy would have confirmed in everybody’s mind that he was a communist. Right now they are calling [President Barack] Obama a socialist.
Q: You didn’t support President Obama in the Democratic primary because you said he hadn’t been tested. Do you still think he isn’t tough enough?
A: Oh no, I think he is proving himself to be tough. But he doesn’t have enough intellectually tough people around him. None of our presidents have lived up to their potential until their women got involved. I am sure it is going to be true of Michelle.
Q: How do you think the president is doing?
A: Magnificently. But he is fighting that Supreme Court decision that allows you to buy unlimited television to spread half-truths and lies and is the greatest threat to our democracy. He is the only one with the brains to take it on.
Q: Are we a long way off from being “post-racial?”
A: We are post-racial, but we are entering into a kind of class stratification that can be more dangerous than race.
Q: You call the tea party movement tough-hearted and soft-minded. To what do you attribute their success?
A: The commercialization of news.
Q: You know a lot about movements. Do you think the tea party will peter out or flourish?
A: Our movement was visionary and unselfish. We were devoting our lives to the nation. The tea party is misnamed because the original tea party didn’t want to pay taxes to Britain. Americans have never been so dumb that they wouldn’t pay taxes to build their own roads and sewers and defend their own country.
Q: Where do you see Atlanta today?
A: There were some very good decisions made before I came along. One of them was [Mayor William B.] Hartsfield deciding that there were not enough progressive white people in the city to move it forward. He formed a black and white business coalition that has run this city since the 1950s.
Q: You say you stumbled upon your path, that you are a leaf in a divine wind, floating from one thing to another. Where do you float from here?
A: I feel like I’ve been led to Africa. But I am enough of a biblical scholar to know that Moses didn’t start his ministry until he was 80. So I figure I’ve got two more years to figure out what God wants me to do with my life.
The Sunday conversation is edited for length and clarity. Writer Ann Hardie can be reached by e-mail at ann.hardie@ymail.com.
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