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'Coleman Alexander Young' (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) served as mayor of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan from 1974 to 1994.

Contents

Pre-Mayoral career

Five terms as Mayor

Personal accountability

Assessment

Quotes

References

External links

Pre-Mayoral career

Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Coleman Young, a dry cleaner, and Ida Reese Jones. His family moved to Detroit in 1923, where he graduated from Eastern High School. He worked for Ford Motor Company, which soon blacklisted him for involvement in labor and civil rights activism. He later worked for the United States Postal Service. During the second World War, Young served in the 477th Medium-Bomber Group (Tuskegee Airmen) of the United States Army Air Forces as a bombardier and navigator. As a lieutenant in the 477th, he played a role in the Freeman Field Mutiny in which 162 African-American officers were arrested for resisting segregation at a base near Seymour, Indiana in 1945.
Young's involvement in progressive and dissident organizations including the Progressive Party, the AFL-CIO, and the National Negro Labor Council made him powerful enemies, including the FBI and HUAC, where he refused to testify. He protested segregation in the Army and racial discrimination in the UAW. In 1948 Young supported Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, which he later viewed as a major mistake.
In 1960, he was elected as a delegate to help draft a new state constitution for Michigan. In 1964 he won election to the Michigan State Senate, where his most significant legislation was a law requiring arbitration in disputes between public-sector unions and municipalities.

Five terms as Mayor

In November 1973, Young narrowly defeated Police Commissioner John F. Nichols (who would later serve as Oakland County Sheriff) to become Detroit's first black mayor. Young won re-election by very wide margins in November 1977, November 1981, November 1985 and November 1989, for a total of 20 years as mayor.
Young's administration was controversial, and he found himself the subject of continued FBI scrutiny amid allegations of contract kickbacks, although no evidence was ever found. He was criticized for his confrontational style toward suburban interests and the apparent diversion of city resources to downtown Detroit from other neighborhoods. Young was generally popular with the inhabitants of the city proper, while generally disliked by those of the suburbs.
Young was a tireless advocate for federal funding for Detroit construction projects, and his administration saw the completion of the Renaissance Center, Detroit People Mover, Joe Louis Arena, and several other Detroit landmarks. He also negotiated with General Motors to build its new "Poletown" plant at the site of the former Dodge Main plant. This was very controversial, as the new plant was larger than the old one and the deal involved many evictions via eminent domain. Many, including the near universal opinion of white suburbanites, stated that the only reason Young wanted the Poletown plant was because it would remove a neighborhood that consisted of a constituency (Polish-American voters) that generally disliked him.

Personal accountability

While civic services deteriorated, federal corruption investigations targeted many members of Young's administration. Some, like Chief of Police William Hart, eventually went to jail. Rumors alleged Young himself kept South African Krugerrands in the Manoogian Mansion. When asked about the rumors in a television interview, Young stated "I don't know nothing about no God Damned Krugerrands," a reply that became legendary in the Detroit area.
Young fathered a child with Annivory Calvert. Though he first denied the child as his, he later admitted the paternity, after DNA tests linked Young to him following a paternity lawsuit filed by Calvert. Young went to court and changed his son's birth certificate to legally match the name on his son's baptismal record to Coleman Young, Jr., whose alias was Joel Loving. Coleman A. Young Jr. was overwhelmingly elected to the 4th District seat in the Michigan House of Representatives in field of 17 candidates. He vows to continue his father's legacy of being the "People's Champion."
Young died from emphysema in 1997.

Assessment

As one of the first blacks to lead a major U.S. city, Young became the voice for a generation of black political leaders in the 1970s.
Young often offended people with his brashness, self-assurance, and intentionally provocative comments. Rumors and accusations of corruption and incompetence dogged his administration, and ultimately contributed to a lack of political support as well as a reluctance on the part of businesses to relocate inside of the City of Detroit. His combative nature fueled the deep divide that separated the City of Detroit from the suburbs, and contributed to the openly racist governments of suburbs such as Dearborn (under Orville L. Hubbard).
Long-time public relations nightmares, such as Devils Night and high murder rates, were successfully addressed by his successor. Detroit under Young fared much worse than many cities who faced economic decline and racial unrest during this period.

Quotes

Coleman Young was known for his blunt statements, rarely holding back profanity when it suited the occasion:

:"I'm smiling all the time. That doesn't mean a goddamned thing except I think people who go around solemn-faced and quoting the Bible are full of shit."
:Swearing is an art form. You can express yourself much more exactly, much more succinctly, with properly used curse words.
:Racism is like high blood pressure—the person who has it doesn’t know he has it until he drops over with a goddamned stroke. There are no symptoms of racism. The victim of racism is in a much better position to tell you whether or not you’re a racist than you are.
:I issue a warning to all those pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit; hit Eight Mile Road! And I don’t give a damn if they are black or white, or if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road.--^[1]

References

1. McGraw, Bill et al. (1991). ''The Quotations Of Mayor Coleman A. Young''. Wayne State University Press.

External links

★ Harp, Andrea S. April 17, 2001. "Coleman A. Young: Social and Political Powerbroker". The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Wayne State University. (Accessed 20 June 2007)

★ Metro Times. 3 December 1997. "Coleman A. Young (1918 - 1997)" Recollection and remembrance on the longtime mayor. (Accessed 20 June 2007)

★ The Coleman A. Young Foundation. "Coleman A. Young". (Accessed 20 June 2007)

★ Findgrave.com (website) Coleman Young's Gravesite.