Garland Higgins of West Hartford invited friends to join her Monday night at a Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration in Glastonbury. She came for one reason.
"When I told them I would like to see Andrew Young, of course, the response was, "Who is he?" Higgins said.
Andrew Young is an ordained minister, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s right hand man during the Civil Rights Movement.
"Even people who were alive back then didn't understand Dr. King's message. His message was not a Black and White issue. His message was whatever the problems of America, we must learn to solve them without violence," Young said.
Ambassador Young has spent his life carrying on that message. He traveled to Connecticut for a celebration of the Civil Rights leader at Glastonbury High School, where he received a standing ovation from the packed auditorium.
"I have followed his career for 40 years. He's not the kind of person you want to have come to your hometown and miss hearing what he has to say," said Josh Atz of Glastonbury.
At the event organized by the Glastonbury MLK Community Initiative, Ambassador Young shared his thoughts on what Dr. King would think of society now.
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"He started with a motto to redeem the soul of America from the triple evils of racism, war and poverty. Frankly, I think we've gone a long way on racism. We've made progress on war," Young said.
But Young said poverty continues to be a real problem, because of a lack of affordable education.
"The average kid from a working class family has a very hard time going to college anymore and I don't think that's good for the country," said Young.
What is good for the country, according to Young, is carrying on Dr. King's non-violent ways.
"He said if we have an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, we end up with a nation that's blind and toothless," Young said.
Both Young and Dr. King independently spent time in Connecticut.
Sixty years ago, Young studied at the Hartford Seminary. And while Dr. King was a teenage college student, he spent a summer working in the tobacco fields in Simsbury. Ambassador Young said he thinks that summer defined Dr. King, giving him the desire to pursue freedom for all, even lose his life for it.
