The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) hosted a special bus unveiling at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center on the Morehouse College campus to honor the legacy of civil rights icon and global diplomat Ambassador Andrew Young.
MARTA has highlighted other important civil rights leaders and icons on their buses, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Congressman John Lewis, Juanita Jones Abernathy, Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, Evelyn Gibson Lowery, and now Ambassador Andrew Young, the only living honorary left.
Ambassador Young was a key organizer in the Civil Rights Movement, a close advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a prominent advocate for public transit.
His leadership extends beyond Atlanta, having represented the U.S. as Ambassador to the United Nations and serving as Mayor of Atlanta, where he championed infrastructure projects that expanded MARTA and promoted fair development. His legacy is a testament to the power of public service and international leadership.
Young thanked everyone who attended the event and discussed how the Atlanta Public School system is the “foundation of the progress in the South.”
“In the public school system, all of these teachers were bright but weren’t let into the University of Georgia, and they started going to schools all over the country and paid their way back here,” he said. “Nobody wanted to hire teachers with a master’s degree, but back then, they all came back to public schools, and that’s why we’re the city that we are today.”
He also told everyone they felt like family at the event and prayed for them.
“I feel all of you are my family. I think and pray about you, and it’s what’s kept me going,” he said. “It also means I don’t see a way to stop.”
Additionally, Ambassador Young said Atlanta is a beautiful, blessed place, but there’s still more growing to do, and MARTA is a blessing.
“We need to see MARTA as a blessing because, after all these years, people depend on it,” he said.
MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood said the bus unveiling and honoring Young is a “very monumental moment.”
“All of these important people came out to pay homage to the ambassador. Ambassador Young, this really is for you,” he said. “Ever since moving here as a young man in 1961, the ambassador has been shaping himself and shaping this nation, this city, and from MARTA’s perspective, he’s been shaping our agency.”
He also said the importance of the buses become a “beacon of hope.”
“These buses are a rolling billboard reminder to our communities to demonstrate hope, courage, charisma, and continuing the work towards the principles of Ambassador Young so embodies,” he said.
Additionally, Greenwood said there’s no better connection to MARTA’s history than Ambassador Andrew Young. With Young’s connection to the late Martin Luther King Jr. and considering the bus system was not desegregated until 1959, less than 15 years later, he became the first African American elected to Congress from Georgia since the Reconstruction era.
“That’s history in the making,” he said. “You were the 55th mayor of Atlanta in an extensive line of successful, productive mayors that we can all be proud of, and even after your term as Mayor, you were instrumental in bringing the Olympic Games to Atlanta, so we thank you for that”.
Mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, said the buses will continue to inspire future generations.
“This is a celebration of history, the courage, resilience, and hope reflected through MARTA and the series of tribute buses that have been created,” he said. “They pay homage to the tightness of the civil rights movement.”
Dickens also recalled growing up in Atlanta and wanting to be mayor at 16 while watching Young.
“Born and raised in Atlanta, I looked up the Ambassador Young,” he said. “When you walked into the schools, you would see the President of the United States, the governor, and then I’d see this Black man in a suit that I also saw on TV doing inspiring things, pushing the envelope, and moving Atlanta into an international space.”
Dickens told Young he’d been woven into his life since the early days and thanked him for being inspirational and touching his heart.
The Ambassador Andrew Young bus is the final in a series dedicated to Atlanta’s Civil Rights icons as part of MARTA’s yearlong celebration of Black History.
The Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King bus was unveiled in January to mark the King Holiday, a bus honoring longtime MARTA board member Juanita Jones Abernathy was dedicated in April, a special Congressman John Lewis and Lillian Miles Lewis bus was dedicated in September, and a bus celebrating Joseph and Evelyn Lowery was unveiled in October.