Ambassador Andrew Young Attends ATL Screening Of 'The Banker'

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Source: Oluwatoyin Salami / The Banker ATL

THE BANKER is in theaters and sparking important conversations. Atlanta’s The Plaza Theater was filled to capacity with guests ready to watch Apple TV’s original film during a screening sponsored by JMP Start Development Partners (Patrick Henderson; Gregory Angrum; Jessica Myers; Matthew Coleman and Epiq Collective, a commercial real estate investment company focusing on real estate investing in hotels, multifamily, office, and retail, cofounded by Davonne Reaves and Jessica Myers.

Source: Oluwatoyin Salami / The Banker ATL

Prior to watching the film, ATL moviegoers heard words from panelists including civil rights legend Ambassador Andrew Young, Epiq Collective cofounder Jessica Myers and closing attorney Cristyl Kimbrough of Kimbrough Law. Fox 5 anchor Marissa Mitchelle (L) hosted the talkback.

Source: Oluwatoyin Salami / The Banker ATL

THE BANKER details the real-life story of businessmen Bernard Garrett (Anthony Mackie) and Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson), who use their minds to fight back against the 1960s oppression. The two help other African Americans pursue the American dream by establishing a real estate and banking empire and using a white man as the face for it.

Ambassador Young who knows alllll about 1960s oppression, drew a correlation to his own life real-life experiences with the civil rights movement at times even taking on the Ku Klux Klan. According to Ambassador Young, he like the businessmen in the film was unabashed no matter the circumstances and knew that sacrifices had to be made.

“Nobody in the Civil Rights movement knew what they were doing,” said Ambassador Young. “Martin Lither King used to say ‘You all are certifiably insane’ and no one in their right mind would think they are going to change America with no money and just being crazy and willing to help other people, even if it meant possibly your own life. That’s the way the laws were changed, people making sacrifices.”

He also joked that those sacrifices were small change compared to the ones he made joining his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

“No one considered it a sacrifice, we were having a ball! Some of my fraternity brothers are here—the Klan didn’t beat me worse than some of my brothers at Howard [University].”