Live Nation Atlanta kicked off its first Legacy Lunch on Feb. 5 at its relatively new headquarters in the Atlanta Dairies complex on North Avenue.
The guests were two former mayors of Atlanta — Andrew Young and Bill Campbell.
Peter Conlon, chairman of Live Nation Georgia – U.S. Concerts, moderated a conversation between both former mayors that covered a wide-ranging set of topics, including the civil rights movement, the role of Atlanta, the current political environment and the evolution of the entertainment industry in the city.
The sunlit-filled lobby and gathering area was filled primarily with young people who were hanging on every word shared by the former mayors.
At one point, Campbell called being on the program with Young “one of the great privileges of my life.”
Campbell then conveyed to the audience how special it was for them to be able to hear from Young, who had served with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, had been the first Black congressman elected from Georgia since Reconstruction, served as the U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations before serving two terms as mayor.
“Appreciate the opportunity. What you are hearing today is just a snapshot,” Campbell said of how Young had helped change the world as we know it.
Conlon and his partner, the late Alex Cooley, helped build Atlanta’s music industry by promoting live music, filling venues with leading artists, and launching music. Campbell remembered how he worked with Conlon to bring more diverse acts and audiences to Buckhead’s Chastain amphitheater, now known as Cadence Park.
“We fought, and we made Atlanta a better place,” said Campbell, who bragged about the city. “Nothing is as good as Atlanta.”
Young provided the group with several history lessons like how he met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957, how his father — a dentist in New Orleans — had Louie Armstrong as a patient, the efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act and then the Voting Rights Act, the protests in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Selma, Ala., which turned violent because of Southerners who were resisting integration.
“This is the not the first time when we seemingly thought we had to start all over,” Young told listeners who seemed a bit shell-shocked by the onslaught of news coming out of Washington, D.C.
“When [President] John F. Kennedy was assassinated [in 1963], we thought it was the end of the world,” Young said. But President Lyndon Johnson became an ally and got the Civil Rights Act passed. After King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Young and MLK went to see the president, who didn’t believe he had the political power to pass the Voting Rights Act.
“By the end of March 1965, we had gone from the most depressing time in our lives to LBJ pushing the Voting Rights Act,” Young said. “In three months’ time, the world changed for everybody.”
Young got a few laughs when he talked about getting beat up in St. Petersburg during racial protests. “It wasn’t any big thing to get beat up,” Young said, adding they would just get back up. “I was raised on nonviolence. My father would tell me: “Don’t get mad; get smart. Your mind is the most special weapon you have.””
The former mayors also talked about the intertwining relationship between integration and entertainment.
“When I came here, the music scene was bustling on Auburn Avenue,” Young said, remembering seeing Ray Charles and Louie Armstrong. “It was about the integration of the entertainment industry.”
Young said Atlanta was successful because Blacks and whites were willing to work together. There was a special alliance between Blacks and the Jewish community, which helped diminish the racial tension that existed in other Southern cities.
Campbell said that when he was mayor, Atlanta experienced an “explosion” in the urban music scene, with OutKast — André 3000 and Big Boi — sending a message nationally that “the South has something to say” and helping put Atlanta on the map for entertainment.
“It has played an important role of Atlanta as a center for the entertainment industry,” Campbell said. “It’s a remarkable, creative industry. It’s a great industry, and it’s really fueling the incredible growth of our economy.”
Young told folks he will be turning 93 in three weeks, and he complimented Conlon for being able to fill up Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena.
“I don’t understand the music,” said Young, who drew another laugh from the audience. “It’s a different grove for me, and I can’t afford the prices.”
Campbell said it isn’t just the music industry. The state also passed lucrative tax credits for the film industry, which has made Atlanta and Georgia a center for movies and television.
“The explosion of that is remarkable,” Campbell said. “It is impossible to really quantify how important the entertainment industry is to Atlanta.”
Campbell also talked about the role philanthropy has played in the evolution of Atlanta, highlighting the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Alana Shepherd and Dan Cathy, among others.
But the region needs to continue supporting arts and culture, to keep the entertainment industry healthy.
“Fulton County is cutting its arts budget in half,” Campbell said. “You should never take what you’ve got for granted.”
Then Campbell also offered his own advice.
“You have just got to get involved,” he told the young audience. “You’ve got to fight for it. Our forefathers and foremothers, they came through a lot worse than [President] Trump. It starts out with registering to vote and voting.”
In closing, Campbell said it’s important to take a long view, to keep looking to the future and to work to make Atlanta as good as it can be.
“We live in cities we did not build,” Campbell said. “We eat fruit from trees we did not plant.”
