Coleman Young

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.

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. 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 to 63% by 2000. 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.

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. 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.

Personal life

Young fathered a child 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 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 found himself the subject of continued FBI scrutiny amid allegations of contract kickbacks, although no evidence was ever found.

Young died from emphysema in 1997. Upon learning of Young's death former President Jimmy Carter called Young "one of the greatest mayors our country has known."

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.

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.

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. This however, was simply not true. Crime rates in Detroit peaked under Mayor Young at more than 2,700 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 1994. 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 adminisration were under federal investigation for corruption. As such, a privledged 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. 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!

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.

References

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