Civil Rights Leader Andrew Young Compares Atlanta to Detroit

Andrew Young visited Detroit this week to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Freedman’s Bank.

Andrew Young

Civil rights leader Andrew Young compared the rise of Atlanta with that of Detroit during a visit to the city. After working alongside the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Young strove to stimulate economic growth in Georgia. He says his job might have been easier if Atlanta had had some of the features Detroit has.

“If we’d had a river like Detroit has? The leading trading partner for the United States of America is Canada. Everything that comes in here oughta be coming through Detroit. Everything that goes out of the US should be coming through Detroit, you know, but I don’t know why it doesn’t.”

-Andrew Young

During Young’s tenure as Mayor of Atlanta, he generated $70 billion worth of new private investment. He visited Detroit this week to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Freedman’s Bank.

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