Andrew Young returns to South Georgia city where he first became pastor for exhibit on his life

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — Annie Walden remembers 70 years ago when Andrew Young began his career as a pastor of a small Black church in Thomasville in 1955 — years before he became a civil rights leader beside Martin Luther King Jr., a U.S. congressman, United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor.

"He stayed around the house with us a lot. He would go across the field with my husband. He laid some bricks on our fireplace and bragging that he never laid bricks before," Walden said. "He was like family."

She was among a large group of people who welcomed Young back to the south Georgia city Thursday, the place where he began a career reflected in the aptly named traveling exhibit "The Many Lives of Andrew Young." The event was held at a local art center not far from historic Bethany Congregational Church, where Young became pastor before joining King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"The lessons I learned here all lead to Birmingham to Selma to Washington," Young, 92, told the crowd. "I was already on most of the paths, and you all pushed me the rest of the way up the hill. ... What you have here that you gave to me and my children, I was able to give to the rest of the nation."

The exhibit, created by the National Monuments Foundation, chronicles Young's life through photographs, memorabilia and his own words. It's based on a book of the same name by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs.

Young also served as a pastor in neighboring Grady County before joining the SCLC. While working with King, Young helped organize civil rights marches in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, and in St. Augustine, Florida. He was with King when the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

In 1972, Young was elected to the U.S. House from Georgia's 5th District, becoming the first Black Georgian sent to Congress since Reconstruction. He served as the United Nations ambassador under former President Jimmy Carter and was the Atlanta mayor from 1982 to 1990.

The Rev. Jeremy Rich, a local pastor who also was a minister at Bethany Congregational Church, spoke highly of Young.

"As a successor of Ambassador Young, but also as a pastor, county commissioner and a public educator, I find myself following in his footsteps in the values of trying to do the most good for the most amount of people," he said.

In an interview with The Associated Press before the event, Young spoke about today's racial climate as some Republicans inject race into their criticism of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

"I don't know what they're trying to do. I don't think they know what they're trying to do," Young said. "We've made so much progress on race and creed and class. Maybe that's too much, that they'd rather have a world run by just one group of people."