Coleman Young

• Born: 24 May 1918
• Birthplace: Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• Died: 29 November 1997 (emphysema)
• Best Known As: Mayor of Detroit, 1974-1993

Coleman Young was the first black mayor of Detroit and one of the first black mayors of any major American city. He moved to Detroit with his family as a youngster and later worked at Ford Motors, where he was fired for being a labor union organizer. During World War II he served as a navigator with the Tuskegee Airmen. Young was elected to the Michigan state senate in 1964 (serving from 1965-73), joined the Democratic National Committee in 1968, and in 1973 was elected mayor of Detroit. He was the city's mayor for the next 20 years, retiring in 1993 after five terms. Young's brash charm and plainspoken style made him something of a folk hero, especially to Detroit's many African-American citizens, and Michigan's role as a major electoral state made him a power broker in national politics as well. He published Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Coleman Young in 1994.

Young was married twice: to Marion McClellan (1947-54) and then to Nadine Drake (1955-1960)... In 1989, when he was 71 years old, Young was sued by a former girlfriend named Annivory Calvert, who said Young was the father of her six-year-old son. Paternity tests confirmed the charge and Young agreed to pay child support. Their son, Joel Loving, later took the name Coleman Young, Jr. and was elected as a state senator from Michigan's 4th District in 2006.

Coleman Alexander Young (born 1918) was elected Detroit's first African American mayor in 1973 and served until 1993, longer than any other Detroit mayor.

Born in Tuscaloosa, AL, on May 24, 1918, Coleman Young was the oldest of five children born to Coleman and Ida Reese (Jones) Young. His family moved to Detroit's "Black Bottom" neighborhood when he was five. "Black Bottom" was the center of African American culture and politics in segregated Detroit in the era before World War II. Young's father set up a tailor shop and also worked for the post office. Young attended a Catholic elementary school and Eastern High School, graduating with honors. Working on the assembly line for the Ford Motor Company, Young took part in the sitdown strikes of 1937. He served in World War II as a second lieutenant and bombadier-navigator. During the postwar period Young worked as a union organizer for the Congress of Industrial Organizations, but was fired because he clashed with union leader Walter Reuther.

In 1951 Young was executive secretary of the National Negro Labor Council, which the Truman administration labeled "subversive." In the McCarthy era, Young was investigated by federal authorities as a suspected Communist sympathizer. In the 1950s, Young worked in a laundry and a butcher shop, ran his own cleaning service, drove a taxi, and sold insurance. In 1960, he plunged into politics, winning a seat as a delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention. He was elected to the Michigan Senate in 1964, and became a Democratic floor leader during his nine years there.

Detroit's First Black Mayor

When Young first ran for mayor in 1973, Detroit's population was about 50 percent African American. Young, getting an estimated 92 percent of the African American vote, narrowly beat a white Detroit police chief, John F. Nichols, who got 91 percent of the white vote. Nichols ran a "law-and-order" campaign, playing on fears of unrest that remained from Detroit's destructive 1967 riots, while Young attacked the police force, and particularly its special tactical crime unit STRESS, as a racist organization. After his victory, Young, the first African American to be mayor of Detroit, took a harder line on crime, hoping to blunt Detroit's reputation as the murder capital of the nation. He told a prayer breakfast meeting: "I issue an open warning now to all dope pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers. It's time to leave Detroit. I don't give a damn if you are black or white …hit the road!"

Often profane and always blunt, Young was one of the first African American big-city mayors to achieve national prominence. One of his major goals was to transform the police department from one dominated by whites into an institution more closely reflecting the racial makeup of the city, which was becoming increasingly African American. He blistered white police officers who lived in the suburbs, saying they were like an "army of occupation" and charging: "They don't give a damn about the city. They come in and kick some ass and go back" to their suburban homes. Young suspended police living outside the city, demoted others, promoted a large number of African Americans through use of the quota system, recruited women and minorities for police work, and disbanded STRESS. The mayor cited better police-community relations and the integration of the police force and other institutions as his administration's proudest achievements.

Young was re-elected in 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1989 by sizable majorities, with little more than token opposition. In Detroit's African American community, Young was a heroic figure. He created a formidable political machine and raised millions for his campaign war chest. He imposed a ban on city workers speaking to reporters and he became famous for his obscenity-laced attacks on political opponents. Young became a force in state and national politics, trying to get assistance for Detroit's daunting urban problems during an era of decreasing aid to cities from the federal and state government. In Michigan, he became a symbol of the state's deep racial divisions, despised by many white suburbanites and praised by African Americans and liberal whites.

Abandoned in the decades after the 1967 civil disturbances by most of the city's white, middle-class residents and most of its businesses and investors, Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s was reeling from the rapid decline of the domestic auto industry, which had made Detroit world-famous as the Motor City. With almost all its auto factories closed, Detroit struggled with massive unemployment, abandoned housing, poor schools, lack of public transit and rampant crime. Young was saddled with these deep-rooted problems during an era where urban issues moved from near the top of the national agenda to near the bottom. His major strategy to reverse Detroit's decline was to court business leaders in efforts to rebuild downtown, hoping to recapture businesses and jobs. He forged solid relationships with top automotive and financial leaders and tried to promote Detroit as a "renaissance city." Young pointed to the building of the Renaissance Center, an office-hotel tower on the Riverfront, as the first step to a downtown revival which never lived up to expectations.

An important fight which defined Young's priorities was his deal to bring a new General Motors assembly plant to an area known as Poletown. The city, state, and business leaders devised a plan to raze an old but relatively stable mixed-ethnic community to clear land for the plant, touting the promise of thousands of jobs. Community activists opposed the destruction of the neighborhood. Young prevailed, touting the new GM plant as a symbol of the city's revival, but the economic spin-off promised never materialized, and fewer than half the promised jobs were created after the plant opened.

In his last three terms as mayor, Young's administration was plagued by allegations of fraud, bribery, and mismanagement. The mayor remained blunt and unapologetic, and his combative relations with the press worsened. During Young's last term, his police chief was indicted in a financial scandal amid allegations that Young had operated a slush fund from his campaign war chest. Young was plagued by poor health and seemed ever farther removed from the everyday problems of the city. A growing number of critics, including a younger generation of African American politicians and other community leaders, attacked the Young administration for neglecting the city's neighborhoods, not tearing down abandoned houses, allowing basic city services to decline, and failing to stem crime.

Undaunted, Young remained until the end of his tenure an outspoken booster of Detroit and a critic of his many political opponents. In his 20 years in office, he transformed Detroit from a city run by whites to a city led by African Americans, in government, the police department, the schools, and business. But he failed to make much headway against the daunting social problems that plagued a city abandoned by its major industry and the owners of its wealth. In 1993, Young retired and a new mayor, Dennis Archer, was elected. Archer immediately adopted a more conciliatory attitude toward suburbanites. After his retirement, Young remained outspoken on issues such as the 1995-1997 Detroit newspaper strike and his political machine continued to be a major factor in Detroit politics.

Further Reading

For the political life of Mayor Young see Chicago Tribune (April 17, 1977), Detroit Free Press (May 9, 1974) and New York Times (April 8, 1983). See also The Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (1981); Melvin G. Holli, Detroit (1975); African American Biographies (1992); and African American Almanac (1994).

mayor

Personal Information

Full name, Coleman Alexander Young; born May 24, 1918, in Tuscaloosa, AL; son of Coleman (a dry cleaning shop owner) and Ida Reese (Jones) Young; married and divorced twice; children: Coleman III. Died November 30, 1997 in Detroit, MI.
Education: High school graduate.
Military/Wartime Service: Army Air Corps, c. 1942-46; became second lt. and bombardier- navigator.

Career

Assembly line worker at Ford Motor Co., c. 1939-40, and U.S. Postal Service, c. 1940-42 and c. 1947-50; insurance salesman, c. 1957-64. Member of Michigan State Senate, 1964-73, became Democratic floor leader and Michigan representative on the Democratic National Committee. Mayor of Detroit, 1974--93.

Life's Work

The feisty and combative Coleman Young served an unprecedented five terms as mayor of the city of Detroit. Not one to shy from unpleasant tasks, Young presided over an urban area beset with problems such as rampant crime, high unemployment, and a dwindling population. He was an outspoken and opinionated man whose strongly- worded views earned him both passionate supporters and staunch enemies, both in Detroit and nationwide. Few would argue with a Detroit Free Press editorial in which Young was characterized as "a successful mayor and a consummate politician who has put what's good for Detroit--or, more exactly, what Coleman Young thinks is good for Detroit--above all else."

Much has been written about Detroit's economic troubles, "white flight" to the suburbs, and its general air of desperation. However, Young refused to view his city in an unfavorable light. Under his twenty years in office, Detroit managed to rebuild part of its downtown waterfront, renovate several of its neighborhoods, and construct two new automobile manufacturing plants. As Frank Washington remarked in Newsweek, "any other incumbent mayor could ride comfortably into re-election on [Young's] record."

Young was certainly a man who lived a life of struggle. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and spent most of his early years in Huntsville, where his family was sometimes terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1923, Young's father moved the family north to Detroit in search of better economic opportunities. Young's family settled in the Black Bottom section of Detroit in the late 1920s, and his father opened a small dry cleaning business. In an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Young remembered that his old neighborhood "was a cohesive community, a mixture of working- [and] middle-class people. In many ways it was more secure and comfortable than today's communities."

Young was an intelligent student who received excellent grades in high school. Upon graduating from Eastern High School in 1935, he planned to attend the University of Michigan. However, due to his race, he was denied financial aid. Unable to attend college, he was forced to find employment in the automobile industry to help support his four brothers and sisters. In the late 1930s, he enrolled in an apprentice electrician program at the Ford Motor Company. He finished first in the program, but was passed over for the only available electrician job in favor of a white candidate.

In the early 1940s, Young took a job on the Ford Assembly line and became an underground union organizer and civil rights activist. Within his first few months on the job he became the target of racial slurs by "company goons," which led to a fistfight that cost Young his job. He continued his union activities while obtaining a job with the post office. Young soon became well-known within Detroit for his attempts to secure equal employment opportunities and fair treatment for African Americans in the automobile industry. He was drafted into the Army in 1942 and served with the Tuskegee Airmen, an elite African American flying unit, during World War II. He soon rose to the rank of second lieutenant and flew missions as a bombardier-navigator. Near the end of World War II, he was one of several African American officers who were arrested and jailed for demanding service at a segregated officers' club. The incident generated a great deal of publicity, and the Army eventually integrated the club.

Young returned to Detroit after the war and drifted from job to job for nearly a decade. He married Marion McClellan in 1947, but divorced in 1954. In 1948 he campaigned for the Progressive Party, which led to his dismissal from the Congress of Industrial Workers. During the 1950s, Young's principal interest involved union organizing. He became a co-founder of the National Negro Labor Council, an organization devoted to civil rights in the workplace. Young's projects on behalf of African American workers brought him to the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee, who investigated him as a possible Communist. Called to testify before the committee in 1952, Young refused to answer questions about the Negro Labor Council, and he disbanded the organization rather than turn its membership list over to the United States Attorney General. The adverse publicity made it quite difficult for Young to find and keep a job in Detroit, but it did not destroy his spirit or dampen his enthusiasm for the cause of civil rights.

Toward the end of the 1950s, Young began to have some success as an insurance salesman, and he became active in the Democratic party. In 1960, he was elected as a delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention. Young gradually gained popularity in Detroit and, in 1964, he won a seat in the state senate. He quickly proved to be a strong legislator in Lansing, fighting for open housing legislation and for busing to integrate public schools. His liberal views and pro-labor stance won him many supporters in the Democratic party, and he received a wide base of support in Detroit from the black clergy and the unions. In 1968, Young was elected as the first African American member of the Democratic National Committee.

Young declared his candidacy for mayor of Detroit in 1973 and mounted a vigorous campaign. He finished second in a nonpartisan primary election and faced stiff competition from John F. Nichols, a white police commissioner. While Nichols ran on a standard "law- and-order" platform, Young maintained that African Americans were being treated with undue brutality by the city's police department. He promised that his administration would maintain order without repressive tactics and promote better racial relations between city and suburbs. Young won by a mere 17,000 votes in an election decided along racial lines. Young captured nearly 92 percent of the African American vote, while Nichols received more than 91 percent of the white vote.

"We are going to turn this city around," Young promised in his inaugural address. The new mayor called for a coalition of business and labor leaders both to attract new businesses and preserve those remaining in Detroit. He also began reforming the police department, adding more African American officers and promoting those already in the ranks. He required all Detroit police officers and other civil servants to live within the city limits, and he opened neighborhood "mini-stations" in high crime areas.

In 1976, Young was a strong supporter of Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. With Carter's election victory, Detroit received millions of dollars in federal funds. Young also remained active in the Democratic party. He was selected as the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1977 and served until 1981. In 1980, he led the National Democratic Conference of Mayors and became chairman of the Democratic Convention Platform Committee.

During his tenure in office, Young sought to build alliances with business leaders in an attempt to rebuild Detroit and attract new jobs. Many of his efforts were focused on reviving Detroit's crumbling downtown. In 1977, the Renaissance Center office tower- hotel complex opened on the riverfront. In order to prevent the Detroit Red Wings hockey club from leaving the city, Young secured city bonds to build the downtown Joe Louis Arena, which opened in 1980. Other projects downtown soon followed including the Millender Center apartment-hotel and retail complex, which opened in 1985, and the People Mover, a controversial downtown monorail system that opened to the public in 1987. Young also spearheaded development in other parts of Detroit. Among projects approved by Young were the General Motors Poletown plant, the Chrysler Jefferson plant, and the Detroit trash incinerator.

Young and his administration were often the subject of controversy. In 1989, a former city employee charged that Young fathered her son. Although Young initially denied the charges, a blood test confirmed that Young was the father. He later agreed to pay child support and set up a trust fund for his son. In 1991, Young was forced to hire a new police chief after Chief William Hart was indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing over $2 million dollars from a police department fund. Following the beating death of motorist Malice Green by two white police officers in 1992, Young dramatically increased tensions by calling the death "murder" on national television. He later apologized for the remarks.

During his twenty years as mayor of Detroit, Young easily won each election by a landslide. In 1993, he announced that he would not seek a sixth term as mayor. Advancing age and years of battling emphysema had taken their toll. During the 1993 mayoral campaign, Young endorsed attorney Sharon McPhail over her challenger, judge Dennis Archer. Archer won the election and was sworn in as mayor of Detroit in January of 1994.

Following his departure from political office, Young served as an adjunct professor at Wayne State University and wrote his autobiography Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Coleman Young in 1994. He also joined a group of investors who were seeking to build a casino in Detroit. In July of 1997, Young was hospitalized for pneumonia. He battled emphysema and heart ailments for several months, but eventually lapsed into a coma. On November 30, 1997, Young died of respiratory failure.

A controversial, tenacious, and colorful figure, Coleman Young was a man who inspired both deep devotion and bitter hatred. For many African Americans, Young was the embodiment of a strong leader who was willing to take on the white establishment and serve as a voice for the powerless. As Young's successor, Mayor Dennis Archer, remarked in The Los Angeles Times, "The people of this city have lost a great leader. His bold and forthright advocacy for the people of Detroit, and especially for those who knew the deep pain of discrimination and the stabbing injustice of the denial of opportunity, will always mark Coleman Alexander Young as one of the greatest mayors of urban America."

Further Reading

Books

• Hawkins, Walter L. African American Biographies, McFarland & Co., 1992, pp. 464-65.

• Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 17, 1974.
• Detroit Free Press, April 5, 1987; January 3, 1988; November 30, 1997.
• Ebony, February 1974.
• Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1997.
• The New York Times, November 1997.
• Newsweek, July 31, 1989.
• Time, February 24, 1983.
• U.S. News and World Report, September 25, 1989.

— Mark Kram and David G. Oblender

For more information on Coleman Young, visit Britannica.com.

This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (December 2008)

For other persons named Coleman Young, see Coleman Young (disambiguation).

Coleman A. Young
Coleman A. Young, Detroit, 1981
Mayor of Detroit
In office January 1974 – December 1993
Preceded by	Roman Gribbs
Succeeded by	Dennis Archer
Born	May 24, 1918 (1918-05-24) Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Died	November 29, 1997 (1997-11-30) Detroit, Michigan
Political party	Democratic

Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) served as mayor of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan from 1974 to 1993. Young was Detroit's first black mayor.

Contents 1 Pre-Mayoral career 2 Five terms as Mayor 3 Personal life 4 Assessment 5 Quotes 6 Death and Legacy 7 References 8 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

Young's 1973 Mayoral campaign addressed the role of the violence inflicted upon a predominantly black city by a disproportionately white police department. Young pledged the elimination of one particularly troubled police unit, STRESS (Stop the Robberies and Enjoy Safe Streets.) This one police unit had killed eight black citizens in its first four months of operation. 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 promptly disbanded the STRESS unit, integrated the police department and increased patrols in high crime neighborhoods utilizing a community policing approach.^[1] Young's effect on integrating the Detroit Police Department was successful with the percentage of black police officers rising from 19% in the early 1970s^[2] to 63% by 2000.^[3] Young, however, had little effect on stopping police brutality in the long run as the Detroit Police Department has gained notoriety for the alleged reckless use of deadly force.^[4]

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. 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 because of his outrageous remarks that insinuated he did not like white people.

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. During Young's last two administration's there was increasing opposition among neighborhood activists to these large ticket projects. This opposition typically manifest itself in rigorous budget debate rather than in serious electoral challenges against Young. During this period City Council President Maryann Mahaffey became an outspoken advocate for neighborhood development with the involvement and leadership of community based organizations. Most of the time Young prevailed over this opposition. ^[5]

Personal life

Young fathered a child (Joel Loving, who has recently taken the name Coleman Young himself) with Annivory Calvert. Though he first publicly 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 found himself the subject of continued FBI scrutiny amid allegations of contract kickbacks.

Young died from emphysema in 1997, for he was known to have been a very heavy smoker. Upon learning of Young's death former President Jimmy Carter called Young "one of the greatest mayors our country has known." ^[6]

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 himself expressed his belief the reform of the Police Department as one of his greatest accomplishments. He implemented effective affirmative action programs that lead to successful integration, created a network of Neighborhood City Halls and Police Mini Stations. Young used the relationship established by community policing to mobilize massive civilian patrols to address the Devil's Night arson that had come to plague the city each year. These patrols have been continued by succeeding administrations and have mobilized as many as 30,000 citizens in a single year virtually stopping all seasonal arson. ^[7]

Young often offended people with his brashness, comments on race, 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 opposing governments of suburbs such as Dearborn (under Orville L. Hubbard).

Detroit faced a white flight to the suburbs that began in the 1950s and accelerated after the 1967 Detroit race riots and the subsequent racial preference policies of the Coleman mayoral administration. It was common for Young's opponents to blame him for these developments, but it is speculated that other factors such as white resistance to court ordered desegregation, deteriorating housing stock as well as aging industrial plants and a declining automotive industry leading to a loss of economic opportunities inside the city contributed to the phenomenon. By the end of Young's term in office Detroit had a population of just under 1,000,000 from a pre-war high of over 2,000,000. ^[8]

Young has been widely credited with keeping well organized street gangs out of Detroit, thus postponing the introduction of crack cocaine into the city of Detroit for several years. Crime rates in Detroit peaked under Mayor Young at more than 2,700 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 1994. ^[9] Since Coleman's departure from office, crime rates have begun to decline, with most observers crediting generally more favorable economic conditions in the country at large and the reorganization of an impotent, highly politicized, and allegedly corrupt police force under the Young mayoral administration.

It did not help that many members of Young's administration were under federal investigation for corruption. As such, a privileged few could profit from contributing to the decline of the city, as service deteriorated. Some, (like the Chief of Police) eventually went to jail. For his part, Young was rumored to have South African Krugerrands in the Manoogian Mansion (the Mayor of Detroit's official residence). When asked about this in a television interview, Young stated "I don't know nothing about no God Damned Krugerrands." This quote has become legend in the Detroit area.

Often profane and always blunt, Young was one of the first African American big-city mayors to achieve national prominence. One of his major goals was to transform the police department from one dominated by whites into an institution more closely reflecting the racial makeup of the city, which was becoming increasingly African American. He blistered white police officers who lived in the suburbs, saying they were like an "army of occupation" and charging: "They don't give a damn about the city. They come in and kick some ass and go back" to their suburban homes. Young suspended police living outside the city, demoted others, promoted a large number of African Americans through use of the quota system, recruited women and minorities for police work, and disbanded STRESS. The mayor cited better police-community relations and the integration of the police force and other institutions as his administration's proudest achievements.

Young was re-elected in 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1989 by sizable majorities, with little more than token opposition. In Detroit's African American community, Young was a heroic figure. He created a formidable political machine and raised millions for his campaign war chest. He imposed a ban on city workers speaking to reporters and he became famous for his obscenity-laced attacks on political opponents. Young became a force in state and national politics, trying to get assistance for Detroit's daunting urban problems during an era of decreasing aid to cities from the federal and state government. In Michigan, he became a symbol of the state's deep racial divisions, despised by many white suburbanites and praised by African Americans and liberal whites.

Critics argue that Detroit began its steep decline under the Young administration and only began to come out of that decline after Young's departure from office. In his last three terms as mayor, Young's administration was plagued by allegations of fraud, bribery, and mismanagement. The mayor remained blunt and unapologetic, and his combative relations with the press worsened. During Young's last term, his police chief was indicted in a financial scandal amid allegations that Young had operated a slush fund from his campaign war chest. Young was plagued by poor health and seemed ever farther removed from the everyday problems of the city. A growing number of critics, including a younger generation of African American politicians and other community leaders, attacked the Young administration for neglecting the city's neighborhoods, not tearing down abandoned houses, allowing basic city services to decline, and failing to stem crime.

Economic conditions in Detroit generally trended towards the neutral over the sum of Mayor Young's political tenure, with the unemployment rate trending from approximately 9% in 1971 to approximately 11% in 1993, when Mayor Young retired. However, most economic metrics (unemployment, median income rates, and city gross domestic product) initially dropped precipitously under Young, reaching their "low points" in the late 80's and/or early 90's, with the unemployment rate in particular peaking at approximately 20% in 1982. ^[10] Many credit the subsequent turnaround to an economic reawakening, wherein Young ceased efforts to force local businesses and professional organizations to integrate (through Young-supported judicial activism and aggressive legislative affirmative action in both the private and public sectors) and began actively courting the "white businessmen" he had earlier demonized. Despite these locally dubbed "renaissance" efforts, Detroit economic metrics finished the Young mayoral period at or below pre-1971 levels.

Quotes

Coleman Young was known for his blunt statements, frequently using profanity:

"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."

Coleman Young to Detroit journalists via closed-circuit television from Hawaii: "Aloha, Motherfuckers!"^[11]

"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."^[12]

"You can't look forward and backward at the same time."

"We need to dream big dreams, propose grandiose means if we are to recapture the excitement, the vibrancy, and pride we once had."

"We don't need no Goddamn Greenpeace!" (In response to activists suspended from the smoke stacks of the over-budget, illegal emission level producing incinerator that was about to be put into operation.)

"There is no brilliant single stroke that is going to transform the water into wine or straw into gold."

"I've learned over a period of years there are setbacks when you come up against the immovable object; sometimes the object doesn't move."

Death and Legacy

• The mortal remains of Coleman Alexander Young are interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.^[13]
• The city hall for the City of Detroit was renamed the "Coleman A. Young Municipal Building."
• He has a wing named after him at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

References

1. ^ , Time Magazine, January 14, 1974 New Men for Detroit and Atlanta
2. ^ "Do Whites Have Rights": White Detroit Policemen and "Reverse Discrimination" Protest in the 1970s
3. ^ Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, 2000: Data for Individual State and Local Agencies with 100 or More Officers
4. ^ Fieger flirts with mayoral bid.
5. ^ The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 594, No. 1, 125-142 (2004)Race and Representation in Detroit’s Community Development Coalitions
6. ^ Michigan Daily, December 1, 1997.Coleman Young Dead at 79, Detroit Mourns Loss of a Pioneer.
7. ^ The New York Times, February 19, 2008 Civic Angels Curb Detroit 'Devil's Night' Fires
8. ^ Time, October 27, 1961 Decline in Detroit
9. ^ Wayne University Center for Urban Studies, October 2005 [1]
10. ^ Wayne University Center for Urban Studies, October 2005 [2]
11. ^ Desiree Cooper (1997-12-03). "Rapper deifies cusser". http://www.metrotimes.com/archives/young/rapper.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. "And when addressing a party of Detroit journalists (for whom he held a healthy contempt) via closed-circuit television from Hawaii, Young opened his remarks with a robust: "Aloha, motherfuckers."" 
12. ^ McGraw, Bill et al. (1991). The Quotations Of Mayor Coleman A. Young. Wayne State University Press.
13. ^ Coleman A. Young memorial at Find a Grave.

External links

United States Air Force portal

• 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 Sarcophagus was provided by Enduring Memories Headstone Monument Company Gravesite.
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gildon_Dissertation.pdf

Political offices
Preceded by Roman Gribbs	Mayor of Detroit 1974–1993	Succeeded by Dennis Archer

v • d • e Tuskegee Airmen Locations Moton Army Air Field • Tuskegee Army Air Field Aircraft P-40 Warhawk • P-39 Airacobra • P-47 Thunderbolt • P-51 Mustang Units 99th Fighter Squadron • 100th Fighter Squadron • 301st Fighter Squadron • 302d Fighter Squadron • 332d Fighter Group • 477th Fighter Group Pilots Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (Leader)  • Lee Archer • Henry Cabot Lodge Bohler • Edgar Bolden • George L. Brown • Roscoe C. Brown • Eugene Calvin Cheatham, Jr. • Alfonza W. Davis • Gene Derricotte • Charles Dryden • Julius Freeman • Oliver Goodall • Percy Heath • Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. • Alexander Jefferson • Charles William Ledbetter • John Mosley • Wendell O. Pruitt • Isaiah Edward Robinson, Jr. • Wilmeth Sidat-Singh • Vernon Sport • Chuck Stone • Percy Sutton • Roger Terry • Lucius Theus • George Watson • Henry Wise Jr. • Coleman Young Incidents Freeman Field Mutiny Films Henry Browne, Farmer (1942 film) • Wings for This Man (1945 film) • The Tuskegee Airmen (1995 film) • Black Eagle (Wild Card character) • Hart's War (2002 film) • Silver Wings and Civil Rights:The Fight to Fly (2004 film)  • Red Tails (George Lucas film) Legacy National Historic Site • Tuskegee Airmen, Inc See also Golden Thirteen • Buffalo Soldier • U.S. Army Black Panthers • 366th Infantry Regiment • United States Colored Troops • African American military history

v • d • e Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors Diaz (Miami) · Palmer (Trenton) · Guido (Dearborn) · O'Neill (Long Beach) · Plusquellic (Akron) · Garner (Hempstead) · Menino (Boston) · Morial, M. (New Orleans) · Coles (Boise) · Webb (Denver) · Corradini (Salt Lake City) · Helmke (Fort Wayne) · Daley, R. M. (Chicago) · Rice (Seattle) · Ashe (Knoxville) · Abramson (Louisville) · Althaus (York) · Flynn (Boston) · Isaac (Colorado Springs) · Whitmire (Houston) · Holland (Trenton) · Berkley (Kansas City) · Riley (Charleston) · Morial, E. (New Orleans) · Padilla (San Juan) · Fulton (Nashville) · Young (Detroit) · Boosalis (Lincoln) · Hatcher (Gary) · Carver (Peoria) · McNichols (Denver) · Alexander (Syracuse) · Gibson (Newark) · Landrieu (New Orleans) · Alioto (San Francisco) · Martin (Norfolk) · Welch (Houston) · Maier (Milwaukee) · Tate (Philadelphia) · Maltester (San Leandro) · Schrunk (Portland) · Barr (Pittsburgh) · Cavanaugh (Detroit) · Blaisdell (Honolulu) · Tucker (St. Louis) · Selland (Fresno) · Lee (New Haven) · Celebrezze (Cleveland) · Burns (Jacksonville) · Dilworth (Philadelphia) · Daley, R. J. (Chicago) · Poulson (Los Angeles) · Wagner (New York City) · Hynes (Boston) · Robinson (San Francisco) · Burke (Cleveland) · Kennelly (Chicago) · Lawrence (Pittsburgh) · Green (Birmingham) · Welsh (Grand Rapids) · Kelly (Chicago) · La Guardia (New York City) · Hoan (Milwaukee) · Walmsley (New Orleans) · Curley (Boston) · Murphy (Detroit)

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