\nAmbassador Andrew Young examines a 1965 photo of Martin Luther King Jr. watching President Lyndon B. Johnson addressing Congress on TV. Young was in the room with King at the time. – Austin Steele\/CNN<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
But that photo of King may now represent something else \u2014 a relic from a bygone era. That\u2019s because the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in rejecting a contested congressional map in Louisiana, further weakened what\u2019s left of the Voting Rights Act. The Rev. Al Sharpton said the decision put a \u201cbullet in the heart of the voting rights movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Young, though, the court\u2019s decision isn\u2019t just political \u2013 it\u2019s also personal. He marched alongside King for voting rights and helped draft the landmark law. Now 94, he has lived long enough to see its possible demise.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot to process for Young, the former Atlanta mayor and US Ambassador to the United Nations. He spoke to CNN the day before the Supreme Court\u2019s decision and became angry when asked about its potential implications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Supreme Court will go to hell if they try to reverse it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Young said he believes the Voting Rights Act created a better America. He cited NASA\u2019s recent Artemis II mission, which featured four astronauts \u2014 a woman, a Black man and two White men on the first human flight to the moon in more than 50 years \u2014 as a snapshot of the inclusive country the law helped create.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why the Supreme Court \u2026 thinks that by backtracking on 250 years of constitutional government that\u2019s going to do any better for the citizens of this nation,\u201d he told CNN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have come so close to making this Earth look like the kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young has a blunt response to critics of the Voting Rights Act<\/h3>\n For many observers, the court\u2019s decision was not a surprise. The Voting Rights Act has been under legal and political attack for years \u2013 especially under the recent conservative Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts.<\/p>\n
Conservative critics argue the law infringes on the equal sovereignty of states and that the federal government shouldn\u2019t interfere with state elections. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once dismissed the act as a \u201cracial entitlement.\u201d<\/p>\n
When reminded of these arguments against the landmark civil rights law, Young\u2019s response was terse.<\/p>\n
\u201cBullsh*t,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard those arguments all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fight for voting equality was one of the civil rights movement\u2019s bloodiest and most harrowing struggles. Before the law\u2019s passage, Black people were fired from their jobs, driven from their homes, beaten and assassinated while trying to vote.<\/p>\n
Young bears his share of scars. He was knocked unconscious while leading a civil rights march in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964. He keeps a framed photograph of that attack on his office wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been beat up and I\u2019ve been jailed and the amazing thing to me is it didn\u2019t even hurt,\u201d Young told CNN. \u201cI had bruises all over my body, but I didn\u2019t even have a headache though I had a knot on my head. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\nAndrew Young, wearing overalls, looks on as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy hold a news conference following their release from the Birmingham city jail on April 16, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama. – Chris McNair\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
He said he and others persevered because of their beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been willing to live and die for the United States of America \u2013 not for what it is, but for what we know it can become,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
Asked if he ever imagined years ago that the Voting Rights Act would be hanging on for dear life, Young said, \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t think it would ever get back to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he hasn\u2019t lost hope.<\/p>\n
Young predicts the Supreme Court\u2019s decision will eventually backfire and will mobilize Black voters and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019ll be a judgment day soon \u2026 that judgment day is Election Day,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that the more people try to push you back, the faster we will push forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 94, no plans to retire<\/h3>\n Young works out of a building near downtown Atlanta, not far from a street named after him. Walking into his office is like entering a time capsule filled with mementos documenting America\u2019s sweeping evolution on race.<\/p>\n
Framed photos of Young marching and conferring with King adorn the walls, alongside images of him laughing with baseball great Hank Aaron, tennis ace Arthur Ashe and entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.<\/p>\n
His shelves are stuffed with books about social justice and history, alongside awards from Young\u2019s seven decades of public service. He was the first African American from Georgia elected to Congress since Reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\nAmbassador Andrew Young on April 28, 2026. \u201cDo you know anybody that\u2019s retired that\u2019s not bored?\u201d he said. – Austin Steele\/CNN<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
He now does much of his work through the Andrew Young Foundation, a nonprofit that supports food security and economic development. He moves gingerly but still preaches every third Sunday at the First Congregational Church UCC in Atlanta and comes into his office about twice a week.<\/p>\n
On the day he spoke to CNN, Young also powered through a series of other interviews and meetings without taking a break for lunch. He greeted well-wishers who stopped by with a smile and a hearty \u201cGood to see ya.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He has no interest in retiring.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know anybody that\u2019s retired that\u2019s not bored?\u201d he said. \u201cYou spend your time looking for somebody to play golf with and then when you get to the fairway, you can\u2019t get the damn thing to go straight anyhow.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in recent years Young has faced many personal losses.<\/p>\n
A daughter, Lisa Young Alston, died last year at 67. Already in 2026 he\u2019s lost two close friends: the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Bernard Lafayette Jr., a dapper, soft-spoken man who was one of the civil rights movement\u2019s most courageous activists. He lost another friend, President Jimmy Carter, two years ago. Other longtime friends and colleagues in the civil rights moment, such as Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian, are also gone.<\/p>\n\n\nAndrew Young speaks to his friend, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, at the Africa-America Institute’s annual awards gala on September 20, 2016 in New York City. – Thos Robinson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Young is one of the few remaining figures from King\u2019s inner circle, says Ernie Suggs, author of \u201cThe Many Lives of Andrew Young.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe says he doesn\u2019t like going to funerals because he always has to speak,\u201d said Suggs, a reporter at the Atlanta Journal Constitution. \u201cHe graciously does it, but it\u2019s taxing.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if it\u2019s hard to say goodbye to old friends like Jackson, Young gave a surprising answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t miss them because they\u2019re with me,\u201d he said. \u201cHardly a day comes by when I don\u2019t think of something that Martin Luther King said to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remains convinced God is still at work in America<\/h3>\n But hope is a muscle that Young has been flexing all his life.<\/p>\n
He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and approaches mortality with the perspective of a pastor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Christian and I believe that there is life beyond this life. I cannot conceive of the non-existence of humanity. I put my trust in the Lord,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m convinced that God is on the side of the least of these, his children,\u201d Young added. \u201cA just society is a society in which all of God\u2019s children have rights and opportunities that are protected by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about how those dismayed by the Supreme Court\u2019s decision should carry on, a faint smile spread across Young\u2019s face and a faraway look came into his eyes.<\/p>\n
He then quoted a gospel song that was sung in Selma and throughout the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know that song, \u2018I Don\u2019t Feel No Ways Tired\u2019? \u2019\u2019he said. He then paraphrased part of the song:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve come too far from where we started from, and nobody told me the way would be easy. But I don\u2019t believe He brought us this far to leave us.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Blake is a CNN senior writer and author of the award-winning memoir, \u201c<\/em>More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew<\/em>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nFor more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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