As we celebrate the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson, who passed away early this morning, we must also honor and celebrate the legends that are still with us. Inside The Gathering Spot at Atlanta’s Northyards district, folks from all over gathered to honor another giant still standing, Ambassador Andrew Young.
On Tuesday, January 17, grief and gratitude shared the same room with Young, who headlined “When HIStory Was Watching”, a fireside conversation centered on the preservation, ownership, and ethical stewardship of civil rights archives. The event, hosted by The Legacy Line in partnership with the Withers Collection Museum and Gallery, brought together legacy families, archivists, and civic leaders to examine how the stories of the movement are protected, and who controls them.
The program opened with a moment of silence led by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who acknowledged the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s passing earlier that morning.
“We started off this morning with the sad news of the passing of the one and only Reverend Jesse Jackson,” Dickens said, calling him “a real freedom fighter” who stood for “justice, freedom, liberation, and opportunity for everyone.”
Dickens then turned to the significance of sharing space with Young, describing the opportunity as both rare and urgent.
“While we may have tragically lost Jesse Jackson, thank God we still have the one and only Ambassador Andrew Young,” Dickens said, noting the importance of connecting directly with those who “marched, organized and memorialized the movement on film and on paper.”
The event coincided with Black History Month and centered on the archive of civil rights photographer Ernest C. Withers, whose collection includes more than 1.8 million images documenting the movement, from sanitation workers in Memphis to historic meetings with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young addressed attendees via video, describing the Withers archive as one of the nation’s most significant visual records of the movement.
“His photographs stand amongst the most significant visual records of movement in our nation,” Young said. “Through his lens, we see courage, we see resolve, we see faith.”
The archive, housed in Memphis on historic Beale Street, represents not just documentation but economic and cultural capital, Young added, emphasizing the importance of “innovation, ownership and the responsible stewardship of cultural archives.”
Moderated by Gathering Spot co-founder Ryan Wilson, the first panel featured Young alongside Rosalind Withers, daughter of Ernest Withers, and Reena Evers-Everette, daughter of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Former Atlanta mayors Bill Campbell, Kassim Reed, and Keisha Lance Bottoms were in attendance, as was Deborah Watts, the cousin of Emmett Till.
Wilson framed the conversation around urgency, not simply admiration of history but replication of the discipline and sacrifice that shaped it.
Young responded by challenging the audience to see the photographs not as relics, but as reminders.
“This is not a study of the past,” Young said. “This is reminding you of how we got to where we are.”
Looking out at projected images from the Withers collection, he added, “If you look at these photos, and you realize that we’ve been through many dangers, toils and snares, we’ve already come.”
For Young, the photographs are more than art. They are instructions.
“You don’t have to say a word. You just look at the picture,” he said later in the program, noting that the scenes could just as easily be from Minneapolis, Atlanta, or anywhere people are organizing for freedom. “Freedom is not free. There’s something you have to organize to protect, something you have to vote to implement.”
Rosalind Withers spoke to the intention behind her father’s work, referencing a self-published pamphlet he created following the 1955 Emmett Till trial. The closing paragraph, she read, stated that the photo story was presented “in the hope that this booklet might serve to help our nation dedicate itself to seeing that such an incident need not occur again.”
“My father was 33 years old when this happened,” she said, challenging the audience to consider the foresight and courage required to document such trauma.
Evers-Everette reflected on the personal weight behind public images, reminding attendees that the people captured in photographs were fathers, daughters, and families before they became icons.
“It’s a family affair,” she said. “Freedom is not free, and we need to embrace that and understand that and move forward with the action of making freedom a mainstay.”
Throughout the discussion, speakers emphasized that intellectual property tied to civil rights archives must remain in the hands of legacy families and trusted partners. The Legacy Line, a subsidiary of Memik Inc., works with cultural estates to license and activate historic collections through home décor and augmented reality experiences, transforming archival storytelling into sustainable economic benefit.
As the discussion came to a close, Young returned to the theme of responsibility.
“We’re not starting with nothing,” he said. “We can go even further if we have the same vitality, energy, and vision that you see in these photographs.”
