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ATLANTA (AP) — France needs the world to understand it has not forgotten about Andrew Younger.
The previous mayor of Atlanta, ambassador to the United Nations beneath President Jimmy Carter and onetime confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. was additional honored by France on Thursday, with Younger being promoted to the rank of officer within the nation’s Legion of Honor.
Laurent Bili, the French ambassador to the USA, on Thursday bestowed the 91-year-old Younger with the brand new rank, crediting his work to finish racial segregation “and paving the way in which for a fairer America.” Bili additionally famous Younger’s advocacy for human rights and efforts to settle a conflict in what’s now Zimbabwe, ending white minority rule there.
President Emmanuel Macron promoted Younger in recognition of his excellent contributions to human rights and equality.
“Ambassador Younger, you’re a dwelling legend,” Bili mentioned Thursday. “Your identify is perpetually inscribed into the historical past of the American Civil Rights Motion. For many years now, you’ve labored to foster peace and justice all through the world.”
France describes the Legion of Honor, based by Napoleon Bonaparte, as its highest honor, bestowed upon residents of France and different nations who’ve served France or upheld its beliefs.
Thursday’s award got here practically 40 years after French President Francois Mitterrand initially inducted Younger into the order throughout a go to to Atlanta in 1984, when Mitterrand additionally positioned a wreath on the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. Younger was mayor on the time, selling an financial growth coverage primarily based partly on worldwide ties.
“There’s been this partnership in democracies that’s helped to alter the world and make it a worldwide economic system that we now have at this time,” Younger mentioned Thursday after he was honored. “That’s what made Atlanta work.”
Younger regaled Bili earlier than the ceremony with how he first met Mitterrand within the late Nineteen Fifties when Younger traveled to France as an worker of the Nationwide Council of Church buildings.
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