Southern Style: Morehouse is a Special Place

The “Morehouse mystique” is almost tangible. The atmosphere of the 144-year-old historically black men’s college is strongly welcoming.
Southern Style: Morehouse is a Special Place
AMBASSADOR YOUNG: Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young addresses the audience during the 'Walk In My Shoes: Conversations Between A Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on The Journey Ahead' book event last month in New York City. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Mary Silver
3/24/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/Young_108956714-Crop.jpg" alt="AMBASSADOR YOUNG: Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young addresses the audience during the 'Walk In My Shoes: Conversations Between A Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on The Journey Ahead' book event last month in New York City.  (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)" title="AMBASSADOR YOUNG: Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young addresses the audience during the 'Walk In My Shoes: Conversations Between A Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on The Journey Ahead' book event last month in New York City.  (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1806391"/></a>
AMBASSADOR YOUNG: Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young addresses the audience during the 'Walk In My Shoes: Conversations Between A Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on The Journey Ahead' book event last month in New York City.  (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Sir Salman Rushdie and Ambassador Andrew Young met at Morehouse College in Atlanta on March 23 to talk about “Globalization and Democracy.” Morehouse is a special place. The “Morehouse mystique” is almost tangible. The atmosphere of the 144-year-old historically black men’s college is strongly welcoming—there is a slightly formal yet warm courtesy, a way many students and faculty carry themselves, which is unique.

A giant statue of Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King stood outside where the two men spoke, King Chapel. The campus chapel features a gallery of portraits of people who have contributed to human rights.

The moderator asked Young and Rushdie what surprised them most about the current world. “Things are moving so fast!” Young exclaimed. Rushdie made his point by mentioning that he was born eight weeks before the end of the British Empire, and had “thought the revival of political religion was a closed subject.”

Young politely added that during the Atlanta Olympics, the only violence was from a religious extremist (Eric Rudolph), “A militant Christian who set a bomb in the people’s park.” The two thinkers often had opposing perspectives on the value of religion and spiritual thought. These differing views can be seen in their respective histories.

Young came to prominence as a civil rights activist and one of King’s confidantes. Later, he became the U.S.’s U.N. ambassador, a congressman, an author, and mayor of Atlanta. Young now heads a foundation that bears his name. He creates documentaries and has won an Emmy. He also teaches at Morehouse.

Rushdie, of course, is a prolific and distinguished author. He was awarded a special super Man Booker Prize, the Booker of Bookers, which said his work was the best of all the work awarded that prize. Rushdie went into hiding when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini put an assassination order out on the author in 1989, due to the perceived blasphemy of his “Satanic Verses,” book written the previous year. Though he now lives in the open, the fatwa has not been officially lifted, and a man who died trying to blow him up has been praised as a martyr.

Young recalled that when he was in government he “got briefings from the CIA, the opposite to what I heard from missionaries.” Young explained that his missionary friends made more sense and showed a clearer understanding of the real situations in the countries. The spies saw things through a distorted lens, he observed. They lacked compassion, and that made them not see things clearly. They discounted Nelson Mandela, for example. “The State Department is way behind the curve, usually.”

While Young believes the spiritual heritage from the world’s religions laid a foundation for a just and kind world, Rushdie sees the dark side, the zealotry, and, given his circumstances, it’s hard to blame him. Rushdie said the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere are “not about America. …There is a sense of great optimism.”

Smiling widely, he said: “People are taking fate into their own hands. The losers in this are the terrorists. It’s a secular revolution of young people wanting freedom and jobs.”

But Young, known as conservative and pro-business, said the issue of jobs and freedom rests on a spiritual base. He said King wanted to see “an economics of nonviolence.” Young said the “way we deal with the least of these is how it will go for the rich and middle class.”

According to Rushdie, “Religion is an illness in public life.” Young made sure to clarify that Rushdie did not say “Religion is an illness. He said it is an illness in public life. Thomas Jefferson would agree with that.”

The nonviolent human rights movement Young took part in was born from the ideas of Gandhi and King, which came from the old values of ahimsa and ubuntu, nonviolence, and humanity. He got his biggest applause from the audience when he said Morehouse did not need to imitate Oxford and Harvard anymore. It should be leading them, teaching in a whole new way—the Morehouse way. “Because Morehouse changed the world in the 20th century, more than they did.”

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Mary Silver writes columns, grows herbs, hikes, and admires the sky. She likes critters, and thinks the best part of being a journalist is learning new stuff all the time. She has a Masters from Emory University, serves on the board of the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and belongs to the Association of Health Care Journalists.
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