Andrew Young Returns to Southern City Where He First Became Pastor for Exhibit on His Life

BY BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press THOMASVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Annie Walden remembers 70 years ago when Andrew Young began his career as a pastor of a small Black church in Thomasville in 1955 — years before he became a civil rights leader beside Martin Luther King, Jr., a U.S. congressman, United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor. “He stayed around the house with us a lot. He would go across the field with my husband. He laid some bricks on our fireplace and bragging that he never laid bricks before,” Walden said. “He was like family.” She was among a large group of people who welcomed Young back to the south Georgia city Thursday, the place where he began a career reflected in the aptly named traveling exhibit “The Many Lives of Andrew Young.” The event was held at a local art center not far from historic Bethany Congregational Church, where Young became pastor before joining King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “The lessons I learned here all lead to Birmingham to Selma to Washington,” Young, 92, told the crowd. “I was already on most of the paths, and you all pushed me the rest of the way up the hill. …...