Andrew Young says the Supreme Court will ‘go to hell’ for weakening the Voting Rights Act
Civil rights office icon Andrew Young There’s a striking photo that took on new meaning this week.
The man Young calls his best friend — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – shows. is watching President Lyndon Johnson gives a televised speech urging Congress to pass voting rights legislation. It was March 15, 1965, a week after demonstrators marching for equal access to the ballot were beaten and tear gassed by state troopers. Selma, Alabama Millions of Americans I watched Johnson ends his speech with a reference to the anthem of the civil rights movement, saying: “And we will overcome.”
Young was in the same room as King that day. After Johnson finished speaking, he looked at his friend and saw something he had never seen before: King was crying tears of joy.
Six months later, the Voting Rights Act was passed. overwhelming bipartisan support from lawmakers and the American public. The law will protect the rights of minority voters, together It became known as the “crown jewel” of the civil rights movement for the elderly and poor. Many believe in the USA It didn’t happen a true democracy until it is accepted.
Ambassador Andrew Young examines a 1965 photo of Martin Luther King Jr. watching President Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech to Congress on TV. Young was in the same room with King at the time. -Austin Steele/CNN
But this photo of King may now represent something else; a relic from a bygone era. That’s because the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a controversial congressional map in Louisiana. got even weaker What’s left of the Voting Rights Act. Reverend Al Sharpton in question The decision “put a bullet through the heart of the voting rights movement.”
But according to Young, the court’s decision is not just political, it is also personal. She marched alongside King for voting rights and helped draft landmark legislation. He is now 94 years old and has lived long enough to see the possible demise of this disease.
There’s a lot to process for Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He spoke to CNN the day before the Supreme Court’s decision and became angry when asked about the potential ramifications of the ruling.
“If the Supreme Court tries to reverse this, it will go to hell,” he said.
Young said he believes the Voting Rights Act created a better America. He referred to NASA’s recent statement Artemis II The mission featured four astronauts — a woman, a Black man and two White men — on the first manned flight to the moon in more than 50 years, as a snapshot of the inclusive country the law helped create.
“I don’t know why the Supreme Court thinks that stepping back from 250 years of constitutional government will make things better for the citizens of this nation,” he told CNN.
“We are very close to making this Earth resemble the kingdom of God.”
Young offers clear response to critics of Voting Rights Act
For many observers, the court’s decision was no surprise. The Voting Rights Act has been under legal and political attack for years, especially during the last conservative Supreme Court term led by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Conservative critics to dispute law violates on the equal sovereignty of the states and that the federal government should not interfere in state elections. Late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once dismissed he sees the action as a “racial right.”
When reminded of these arguments against the landmark civil rights law, Young’s response was harsh.
“Nonsense,” he said. “I’ve heard these arguments all my life.”
The fight for voting equality was one of the bloodiest and most heartbreaking struggles of the civil rights movement. Before the law was passed, Blacks were fired from their jobs, driven from their homes, beaten and assassinated while trying to vote.
Young has his share of scars, too. it was stolen unconscious In 1964 St. Augustine leading a civil rights march in Florida. He keeps a framed photo of that attack on his office wall.
“I was beaten, I was thrown in jail, and the most surprising thing to me was that it didn’t hurt,” Young told CNN. “I had bruises all over my body, but even though I had a knot in my head, I didn’t even have a headache.”
Andrew Young, dressed in overalls, looks on as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy hold a press conference following their release from the Birmingham city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 16, 1963. – Chris McNair/Archive Photos/Getty Images
He said he and others persevered because of their faith.
“We are willing to live and die for the United States of America, not for what it is, but for what we know it can be,” Young said.
Asked years ago if she imagined the Voting Rights Act would continue in her lifetime, Young said, “No, I didn’t think it would ever get to this point.”
But he didn’t lose hope.
Young predicts the Supreme Court’s decision will eventually backfire and mobilize Black voters and others.
“There will be a doomsday soon… that doomsday is Election Day,” he said. “I believe that the more people try to push you back, the faster we will move forward.”
I don’t plan to retire at 94
Young works in a building near downtown Atlanta, not far from the street that bears his name. Entering his office is like entering a time capsule filled with memorabilia documenting America’s sweeping evolution on race.
Framed photos of Young walking and talking with King show him with baseball star Hank Aaron, tennis star Arthur Ashe and entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. It adorns the walls with photographs of him laughing together.
Its shelves are filled with books about social justice and history, as well as awards from Young’s seven decades of public service. HE, First African American from Georgia has since been elected to Congress Restructuring.
Ambassador Andrew Young on April 28, 2026. “Do you know anyone who is retired and not bored?” he said. -Austin Steele/CNN
He now does most of his work through this medium. Andrew Young Foundationis a nonprofit organization that promotes food security and economic development. He moves carefully but still preaching every third Sunday First Congregational Church UCC He’s in Atlanta and comes into the office twice a week.
On the day he spoke to CNN, Young attended a series of other interviews and meetings, without taking a break for lunch. He greeted well-wishers who stopped by with a smile and a hearty “Nice to see you.”
He has no intention of retiring.
“Do you know anyone who is retired and not bored?” he said. “You spend your time looking for someone to play golf with, and when you get to the fairway you can’t make everything go smoothly anyway.”
But in recent years, Young has faced many personal losses.
Their daughter, Lisa Young Alston, died last year at the age of 67. Even in 2026, he lost two close friends: Pastor Jesse Jackson And Bernard Lafayette Jr. He was an elegant, soft-spoken man who was one of the bravest activists of the civil rights movement. Two years ago he lost another friend, President Jimmy Carter. Representative John Lewis and other long-time friends and civil rights colleagues Rev. CT Vivianthey also left.
Andrew Young speaks with his friend, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, at the African-American Institute’s annual awards gala on September 20, 2016 in New York. -Thos Robinson/Getty Images
Young is one of the few remaining members of King’s inner circle, he says Ernie Suggestionsthe author of “The Many Lives of Andrew Young.”
“He says he doesn’t like going to funerals because he always has to talk,” said Suggs, an Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter. “He does it with kindness, but it’s exhausting.”
When asked if it was difficult to say goodbye to old friends like Jackson, Young had a surprising answer.
“I don’t miss them because they are with me,” he said. “Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about something Martin Luther King said to me.”
Believes God is still at work in America
But hope is a muscle Young has flexed throughout his life.
he is a appointed minister He is in the United Church of Christ and approaches mortality from a pastor’s perspective.
“I am a Christian and I believe that there is a life beyond this life. I cannot imagine the absence of humanity. I trust in the Lord,” he said.
“I believe God is on the side of these least of all, his children,” Young added. “A just society is a society in which all of God’s children have the rights and opportunities protected by the Constitution.”
When asked how those upset with the Supreme Court’s decision should proceed, Young had a slight smile spread across his face and a distant look in his eyes.
He then quoted a gospel song sung in Selma and throughout the civil rights movement.
“You know this song, ‘I Don’t Feel Any Fatigue’? ” he said. He later commented on a part of the song as follows:
“We’ve come so far from where we started, and no one told me the road would be easy. But I don’t believe He brought us this far to leave us.”
John Blake is a senior writer for CNN and the author of the award-winning memoir: “More Than I Dreamed: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew.”
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