Andrew Young Looks for White Votes in ‘Redneck Bar’

Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who is seeking white votes in his effort to become Georgia’s first black governor, visited a “redneck bar” here and excused the fact that it plays racist records on its jukebox.

Young’s Monday evening at Carey’s, which is known for its hamburgers and two country songs using the word “nigger,” originally was billed as his way of getting to know a few journalists from around the state. But that purpose was quickly overshadowed by his comments on race.

When he strode into the restaurant-bar here in Cobb County, north of Atlanta, reporters gathered around Young, a former lieutenant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., asking him about the songs and what one reporter called “the N word.”

Struggling for words himself, Young said that the word “is used quite often by blacks as a term of affection for one another.”

He said that the restaurant’s owner, Carey Dunn, who is white, is a friend and a supporter of his gubernatorial bid. “I’ve never found anything particularly racist about Carey,” Young said, adding: “I’ll go anywhere to talk to anybody about the future of Georgia.”

Dunn removed the two records--”Alabama Nigger” and “She Ran Off With a Nigger”--from the jukebox just before the mayor arrived, explaining that he did not want to embarrass Young. He said he would put them back on after Young’s visit.

For his part, Young brought two replacement discs, “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles and “Gonna Go Huntin’ Tonight” by Hank Williams Jr.

Young’s appearance apparently was designed to emulate the crossover politics that was practiced successfully this fall by L. Douglas Wilder in the Virginia governor’s race and David N. Dinkins in the mayor’s contest in New York. The message from their victories was that white voters will support black candidates if they do not feel “threatened.”

For example, Wilder, once known as a Virginia radical, announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor in 1984 in front of a portrait of Harry Byrd Sr., segregationist extraordinaire. But Young went much further on Monday than either Wilder or Dinkins.

Even many white Georgians were surprised by Young’s visit to the bar. Kathy McCauley, who sells building supplies in Marietta, said she has “never seen a black person in there.”

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said Tuesday he had warned Young that blacks would resent his appearance at Carey’s, but Young replied that they would understand that he is their best hope in the race.

“I understand his need to stretch certain tactics to get white votes,” Lowery said. “I’m not sure I could do that.”

Young, who is running neck and neck with Lt. Gov. Zell Miller in opinion polls on the 1990 governor’s race, has softened his historic opposition to the death penalty. Earlier this month, when the Atlanta police force received its first shipment of powerful new semiautomatic pistols, he posed for photographs pulling the trigger of one of the sleek weapons.

“What you see here is an attempt to tone down that image of unabashed liberalism,” said William Boone, political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. “Andy has to broaden that base. That means going into areas he ordinarily would not go in.”

Times researcher Edith Stanley contributed to this story.