With Andrew Young

‘Traveling on Hospitality’: Andrew Young remembers life on the road toward civil rights

Episode number: 305 Date Released: February 8, 2021

Episode 305 Transcript - 1 - © 2021 Long Live Lodging Andrew Young: During the Civil Rights Movement, there were no hotels in these small Southern towns where you could stay. But everybody, if they had an extra bed or a couch, you were welcome. People did not charge you for that. You gave them money if you had it. But those of us in the Civil Rights Movement who had little or no money, we got our room and board as a gift from the community. Announcer: This is the Lodging Leaders podcast with Jon Albano and Judy Maxwell session number 305. Welcome to the Lodging Leaders podcast, where top-performing hoteliers and hospitality industry experts share powerful insights and actionable advice to help you grow your portfolio. And now your host, Judy Maxwell. Judy Maxwell: Hi, Everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in today. You can find the expanded multimedia report for this episode at LodgingLeaders.com/305. Traveling on Hospitality: Andrew Young, remembers life on the road towards civil rights. This is the second installment of Long Live Lodging's special project for Black History Month that looks at how the hospitality industry impacted the Civil Rights Movement in the middle of the 20th century. Today, we feature Andrew Young Jr., an icon of civil rights in America and around the world. Young, who will turn 89 years old on March 12th, has led a storied life. Beginning his career in the mid-1950s as a Baptist minister in Georgia, he went on to become executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a civil rights activist alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He served as a U.S. Congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and mayor of Atlanta. He has a lot to talk about for sure. But in this episode we asked him simply to share his experiences while traveling with the Rev. Dr. King throughout the South to spread the gospel of racial equality. I want to pause here to thank you, our followers, for your support of our regular programming, amid the business and professional challenges of the past 12 months. This year, as the hotel industry works to emerge from the coronavirus crisis and its leaders face the challenge of building a more equitable and inclusive environment that generously upholds the ideals of hospitality toward all, we encourage you to strengthen your support of our mission by becoming a Lodging Leaders subscriber. It's free to subscribe and you can take that step by visiting lodgingleaders.com/subscribe. If your B2B enterprise serves the hospitality industry, consider coming on board as a sponsor. We have many different ways we can help you tell the story of your company, product or service. To learn more, check out our 2021 media kit at longlivelodging.com/media-kit. Now back to our report. I met Ambassador Young in February 2019 during the Hyatt Regency Atlanta's Heritage Celebration. We were introduced by Davonne Reaves, who began her hospitality career at the front desk of the Hyatt Regency. Today she owns The Vonne Group, a hospitality consulting business. And recently she bought her first hotel. Davonne is 33 and has known Young for more than a decade. She met him when volunteering for the Trumpet Awards, an annual program that recognizes African-American achievements in television, music, film politics and the arts.

Episode 305 Transcript - 2 - © 2021 Long Live Lodging Founder of the awards program is Xernona Clayton, a civil rights activist as well as an executive with Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta. Reaves was assigned to escort Young and his wife, Carolyn. The Trumpet Awards advanced team gave her some information about him, but not enough to help her realize his significance to American history. Davonne Reaves: I was a volunteer at the time. And so my job as the handler was to work with the VIPs and I was assigned to Ambassador Young and his wife, Carolyn. When I met the ambassador, I didn't know who he was. They sent you pictures and they told you a little bit about them, but I really didn't understand the impact of him. And so we were eating at a restaurant. So many people kept walking up to him to meet him. And so I had to like sneak and I text my dad. "Daddy, I'm sitting here with Ambassador Andrew Young but I don't know who he is." And my dad basically went off. "What is wrong with you? You do not know who Ambassador Andrew Young is? Are you kidding me? That's how you're able to work with that hotel. When you get finished, your assignment is to study him." So ever since then, the lesson there is when you're meeting with people, you do your research, you know who you're meeting with. Judy Maxwell: Reaves has grown close to Young and his family. Recently, she and Uncle Andy, as she calls him, got to talking about hotels when Reaves told him she had recently invested in a property and made some history of her own. He began to reminisce about the places he stayed when traveling as a preacher and then as a civil rights activist. So here we are today, sharing Andrew Young's recollections of the Black guest experience as a road warrior with a cause in the segregated South, Andrew Young: I started in the civil rights movement, probably in 1954. I was a pastor in South Georgia in Thomasville and Beachton. One of the first hotels I remember going to had no sheet rock on the wall. It had a bed and a wash pan. It looked like something out of a, you know, Western movie, uh, very rough, but I was tired so I slept well. Everything was rigidly segregated then. So this was a black-owned, black-operated rooming house. That was typical of our stays in the early days. But for the most part, we didn't stay in professional lodging because there was none. But there was almost an unwritten rule that everybody who had a home had a guest room that they made available for anybody passing through. Now the classic of that was owned by Amelia Boynton in Selma. I think everybody stayed at Amelia Boynton's, from George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Ralph Bunche, me. And, um, during the Civil Rights Movement, there were no hotels in these small Southern towns where you could stay. But everybody, if they had an extra bed or a couch, you were welcome. I slept on the floor in sleeping bags. I remember a couple of very hard iron army beds with little thin mattresses on them. But, um, beggars could not be choosers. And usually people did not charge you for that. You gave them money if you had it. But those of us in the Civil Rights Movement who had little or no money, we got our room and board as a gift from the community.

Episode 305 Transcript - 3 - © 2021 Long Live Lodging Judy Maxwell: The year before the Rev. Dr. King's death, architect John Portman completed the construction of the landmark Hyatt Regency Atlanta. It opened up a whole new world to the Atlanta business community. Andrew Young: After desegregation, after the Civil Rights Bill passed, then we quite often stayed in the, there was usually one hotel in town that had a liberal reputation. Here in Atlanta I think it was the Hilton out at the airport. That was the first that I remember until John Portman built the Hyatt Regency. We desegregated that. That it was amazing to me that that hotel began the civil rights convention era. That when you had big hotels like that accepting Black people, we came in droves. I think the first three weeks that that hotel was open in '67 were the Bronner Brothers, ah, Beauty Show. And there was a disc jockeys convention. And then Martin Luther King's SCLC convention. So it was Black conventions that filled those hotels and made Atlanta an attractive place for, I think it was the Black organizations that established the tradition of Atlanta as a convention business, a convention city. I remember when, I wasn't mayor, but I was congressman or something, and there was a conference of 20,000 bankers and they wanted to turn down 50,000 Baptists. And I said that I guarantee you, the Baptist will outspend the bankers any day. And that we do have enough hotels if all of them open up. And I think the bankers took one hotel, one or two downtown hotels, but everybody everywhere, all the other smaller hotels were taken up by the Baptists. And it was clear that this was the only time that most of these Baptists, especially the women, were going to be leaving town and they brought all their spending money and shopping money. The same thing with the sororities and fraternities. Delta Sigma Theta had 40,000 black women, mostly professional women, who came to Atlanta and they literally bought everything out of Saks and Neiman Marcus. And, uh, they couldn't open up Monday morning after they left. They were there for a week and they had to close the stores Monday to give them time to get restocked. Judy Maxwell: The economic might of black travelers was recently highlighted by MMGY Global. Its report titled "The Black Traveler: Insights, opportunities and priorities," revealed Black travelers account for more than 13 percent of the U.S. leisure travel market. Black travelers' 458 million overnight stays in 2019 accounted for more than $109 billion in travel spend. Another study by Mandala Research in 2018 reveals African-American cultural travelers are the highest spenders, averaging more than $2,000 per traveler compared to $1,300 spent by other Black leisure travelers. In the survey, 1,700 respondents said they spent the most on food and shopping, with the latter being the most popular activity for vacationers. Young said that was indeed the case when he was mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990. Andrew Young: Black tourists, when I was mayor, it was estimated that they spent $8 billion, what was the value of the convention business in the Black community. Because one of the first crisis, well, it wasn't a crisis - Atlanta, after it built all these hotels, could never get beyond 60 percent occupancy. And the reason was a convention started on Sunday night and ran Monday through Friday or Thursday, and the hotels were empty all weekend. And one of the things that I suggested was that we promote Black church conventions and family reunions. And that, I don't know how they did the advertising, but suddenly in Jet and Ebony and other Black periodicals

Episode 305 Transcript - 4 - © 2021 Long Live Lodging there started to be articles about, "Have your family reunion in Atlanta." And there was a sort of a package deal for families. And that was the way we got our occupancy up into the 90s when we focused on Black family reunions and church meetings on the weekends because Black people traveled for pleasure. The Black conventions, they are times and days set aside for shopping. And once our premier stores realized the market they started having cocktails and receptions. I remember Tiffany's had one for one of the conventions and my wife was involved in. And they had their sales clerks there. And they were serving champagne and hors d'oeuvres, but people were buying things. Judy Maxwell: Young talked about what the Atlanta hospitality travel and retail communities are facing amid the economic devastation of a coronavirus pandemic, and we'll bring that conversation to you in a follow-up report. But I want to return to the topic of how Young, the Rev. Dr. King and countless others depended on good old-fashioned Southern hospitality to get a lot of food and a little rest while campaigning for civil rights for Black Americans. Andrew Young: Everywhere we went in the Civil Rights Movement, we were invited by somebody in the community. And they knew where it was best to stay, but most of them didn't want Martin Luther King, for instance, uh, or me to stay in a hotel. There was the Ben Moore Hotel and Montgomery, but I don't think I stayed there but once. For the most part, you know, there was somebody that said, "You go home with them." First place, you had to eat and, you know Southern cooks and Southern hospitality. They'd be fixing food for weeks to feed the whole Civil Rights Movement. The student movement didn't have any money and they were basically traveling on hospitality. But people were so glad to have these young people of courage. And they were black, white, male and female. And that was a phenomena in the '60s. That was new to the South. And nobody quite knew how to deal with it. Judy Maxwell: Private homes, Black-owned bed and breakfasts and motels did not have to advertise much because the awareness of their accommodations, no matter how simple, traveled by word of mouth. It is somewhat ironic then that the Rev. Dr. King was killed while he was at a motel. Next week, we'll go deeper into the story of the Lorraine Motel and its place in Civil Rights History, but Young recalled April 4th, 1968, when the Rev. Dr. King stepped out of his motel room into the cool of a Memphis early evening. The group from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was in Memphis to support the sanitation strike when 13,000 Black workers walked off the job after two garbage collectors were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck. The day before, the Rev. King spoke at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple, where he famously told the crowd that he'd "been to the mountaintop." He urged the people to stay together and show solidarity for the sanitation workers and demand that community leaders and elected officials uphold federal civil rights laws and to fight for economic justice. He talked about receiving threats when he arrived in Memphis.

View Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s full speech: "I Have Been to the Mountaintop"

Episode 305 Transcript - 5 - © 2021 Long Live Lodging Martin Luther King Jr.: It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning. And as we got started on the plane, that was six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We're sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane and to be sure that all of the bags were checked and to be sure that nothing would be wrong on the plane we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded at all night." Then I got into Memphis and some began to say the threats and talk about the threats that were out, what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers. Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountain top. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain, look over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight we'll get to the promise land. Judy Maxwell: Young tells how he, the Rev. Dr. King and the others with them ended up at the Lorraine Motel that day. They weren't strangers to the property because it was Black owned and they all had stayed there several times before. So often in fact that the Rev. Dr. King had a favorite room. But that was not the room he got on April 4th. Andrew Young: That was a set up. When he first went to Memphis with the garbage workers, he was going out that same night and they got him a room downtown at the Peabody. And when they had, um, well they disrupted the march, and I think the police paid to have it disrupted. Then the newspapers came out and accused him of running and hiding in a big white hotel. So when he came back, he made arrangements in the Lorraine Motel. But now the room that he was given and that he liked was a downstairs room, in the corner. And it was the largest room and it had two double beds and a table, a kitchenette. And that was the room he liked. But the Memphis police sent word that they could protect him better if he was upstairs. Well, that was not true. They could not have shot him if he'd been in that room down there. But the Memphis police had some involvement in his assassination. I don't know what it was exactly, but I know that that was true, that they criticized him for staying in the downtown hotel, which was safer. And then when he stayed in the Lorraine Motel, which was the Black-owned motel, they moved him out of the corner room and put him up on the balcony where he was shot. When we came back from the hospital, I mean, he was shot at exactly six o'clock and we got back from the hospital about 8:30, they were already cutting down the bushes across the street. And they had cut the bushes down and they had swept that area clean. And we went over and we confronted the city workers and said, "Why are you doing this?" And they said, "The police ordered us to cut this down." And so there's at least documented evidence that, uh, the police interfered with a crime scene. And so that is all I can prove.

Episode 305 Transcript - 6 - © 2021 Long Live Lodging Judy Maxwell: Young and the rest of the team stayed at the Lorraine Motel that night. Young said he knew the Rev. Dr. King was not afraid to die. For that reason, Young slept soundly despite the traumatic turn of events that left the Civil Rights Movement without its one-of-a- kind leader and so much still to accomplish. Andrew Young: At the time I almost wish that they'd shot both of us. It was my initial reaction was, "You can't go to Heaven and leave us in Hell." Judy Maxwell: To end on a light note. We asked Young if he had any favorite good memories of traveling during the Civil Rights Movement. Yes, of course he said, and they both involve food. Andrew Young: I remember stopping in Mississippi and it was a little roadside restaurant and they were expecting us and, uh, we called ahead and told them what time to expect us. And when we got there, they had a platter. It was connected with a catfish farm. They had a platter of catfish in front of everybody's plate with eight or 10 catfish on it. And I remember Rev. Abernathy ate two platters of catfish. We hadn't eaten all day long. And another day we were driving around Mississippi and couldn't find any desegregated restaurants. So we went into one of these little roadhouse places and. They had a big two gallon or maybe it was five gallon jar of pigs feet. And Dr. King asked, "How much are these?" And they told him 15 cents a piece or something like that. And he said, "No, how much is the whole jar?" And he bought the whole jar of pigs feet. And we bought a box of napkins and a box of soda crackers and sat by the side of the road and ate pigs feet because we hadn't eaten all day long. Judy Maxwell: Thanks for tuning in today. You can find the show notes and the expanded multimedia report for this episode at lodgingleaders.com/305. Thanks to Davonne Reaves of The Vonne Group. And special thanks to Andrew Young, a civil rights icon who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as a U.S. congressman and as mayor of Atlanta. Make sure you check out the multimedia report associated with this conversation at lodgingleaders.com/305. You'll find an expanded report that includes photos, links to more information and the Rev. Dr. King speech on April 3rd, 1968. This episode is part of our special project and commemoration of Black History Month in which we explore the impact the hospitality industry had on the Civil Rights Movement. Check out our previous report, Episode 304, in which we cover Choice Hotels International and developer Fred Washington of Southern Accommodations signing an historic Black-owned multi-unit franchise agreement and the Indian American construction company that will build the hotels. Next Monday, we'll feature a report on the history of Black travel in America during the era of segregation. We'll also continue our regular Wednesday podcasts that cover the hospitality industry. If you enjoy these episodes, don't keep it to yourself. Consider sharing them with your followers. There are links for sharing on every page, which makes it easy to spread the word.

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