Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young speaks at Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral on January 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Source: YouTube screenshot
Rev. Andrew Young delivered a moving eulogy at former President Jimmy Carter‘s funeral in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon in the National Cathedral in front of an audience that included all of the former living U.S. presidents.
Having served in Carter’s administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Young shared some interesting anecdotes about their shared love of Georgia as well as their professional and personal relationships that harkened back to the Civil Rights Movement. That was where Young launched his career in politics following the assassination of King, winning Georgia’s Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and becoming the first African American since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from Georgia.
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After serving two terms on Capitol Hill, Young resigned in 1977 to accept Carter’s nomination to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and he held the post until 1979. That was when Carter asked Young to resign following his controversial private meeting with Palestinian officials.
Andrew Young looks on as presidential candidate Jimmy Carter speaks to a group of civil rights activists at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City in 1976. | Source: Owen Franken – Corbis / Getty
That paved the way for Young’s successful 1981 mayoral bid in Atlanta.
Young fell short in a 1989 gubernatorial campaign and withdrew from politics but remained close with Carter, whom he praised on Thursday as “a blessing from God.”
Keep reading to fund the full text of Andrew Young’s eulogy at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington, D.C.
Source: YouTube screenshot
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians in the fourth chapter, the 32nd verse: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as God forgave you in Christ.
Jimmy Carter, for me, was something of a miracle.
I was born in the Deep South, shortly a few years after him, and it was always a place of miracles.
I couldn’t see how we could have had the differences in background, the coming from different places on the planet, the experiences of slave and slave owner, the diversity of color and creed and national origin and still become the great nation that we are in the United States of America.
It was something of a miracle.
And I don’t mean this with any disrespect, but it’s still hard for me to understand how you could get to be president from Plains, Georgia.
*laughter*
I knew Plains from my pastorate in Thomasville, Georgia, about 60, 70 miles south of there. And I was even nervous driving through Plains. And Plains and Sumter County gave us one of the meanest experiences that we had in the Civil Rights Movement. So much so that Martin Luther King said that the sheriff of Plains in Sumter County, he really thought was the meanest man in the world.
And when I first met Jimmy Carter running for governor, and said, ‘The only thing I know about Plains and Sumter County is Fred Chapel.’ And he said, ‘Oh yes, he’s one of my good friends.’
And that was the last thing I wanted to hear.
And yet, time and time again, I saw in him the ability to achieve greatness by the diversity of his personality and his upbringing.
Dr. King used to say that greatness is characterized by antipathies strongly marked. You’ve got to have a tough mind and a tender heart.
And that was Jimmy Carter.
And he grew up in the tremendous diversity of the South, and he embraced both sides.
He was a minority in Sumter County, just about 20, 25% of the population was white. But growing up as a minority, he became the friend of the majority. And when he went to the Naval Academy, he asked that his roommate be the first Black Midshipman to come to Annapolis. And he said, ‘I know minorities. I’ve been a minority most of my life, and maybe I can help him in his adjustments.’
And he went out of his way … to embrace those of us who had grown up in all kinds of conflict.
But that was the sensitivity, the spirituality that made James Earl Carter a truly great President.
James Earl Carter was truly a child of God. Not only a good farmer, but a nuclear physicist chosen by Admiral Rickover to assist him in developing a new nuclear Navy.
But at the same time he was working on a nuclear Navy, he was thinking of peace on earth and good will toward all men, and especially women and children.
I’ve known President Carter for more than half of my life, and I never cease to be surprised. I never ceased to be enlightened. I never cease to be inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy that he shared with us every day of his life.
It was President James Earl Carter that, for me, symbolized the greatness of the United States of America, and I am truly grateful for him, because, in spite of the harshness of The Depression and the explosions of inflation, he never wavered for his, from his commitment to God Almighty and his love of all of God’s children.
Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped to create a great United States of America. And for all of us and many who are not able to be here, I want to say thank you.
You have been a blessing from God, and your spirit will remain with us. And as Jason [Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson] said, he may be gone, but he ain’t gone far.
Thank you, President Carter, and thank you, Almighty God.
Watch Andrew Young’s full eulogy below, and the full funeral below that.
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