ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta businessman Charles Loudermilk never tried to buy Andrew Young’s friendship, but he doesn’t mind paying for it now.

Loudermilk honored the unlikely friendship forged two decades ago between the white, conservative Republican entrepreneur and the civil rights icon who served as mayor of Atlanta during the 1980s with a tribute that includes an eight-foot bronze statue of Young.

The $1.5 million project, bankrolled by Loudermilk, was unveiled Monday as part of an homage to the civil rights icon who worked alongside Martin Luther King Junior as a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Four years in the making, the tribute is a gift of gratitude from Loudermilk, who supported Young in his bid for mayor of Atlanta. It will also honor the intersection of business, race and politics in Atlanta at the junction of three downtown streets.