Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young hopes other cities can learn from Atlanta’s success.
“It’s no accident that Atlanta is doing so well and most cities are not,” said Young, who is also a civil rights veteran.
Young's documentary, "Making of Modern Atlanta," that addresses how the city moved forward when other's didn't, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Rd. in Sandy Springs.
The event, sponsored by the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition, is program of the American Jewish Committee of Atlanta, will include a book signing, dessert and a panel discussion featuring Andrea Young, executive director of ACLU of Georgia ; Dan Gordon, Chief Operating Office, for the city of Atlanta; and Howard Maziar, an early civil rights activist in Atlanta.
“This is a unique story, ” said Young. “I hope people realize that they can learn from Atlanta. What we’re talking about is a 50 year history and for 50 years it worked.”
He said the city “decided very early that it was not going to have a race problem and that it was going to be black and white together. The other thing we decided was that we would use a public/private partnership and not just use public money to do project. Third, we did everything we could to integrate poor people into the economy and we put great emphasis on how we desegregated our schools. It worked pretty well.”
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