Coleman Young, Comrade and Democrat and Black Mayor Extraordinaire : my role model

Coleman Young, Comrade and Democrat and Black Mayor Extraordinaire : my role model Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit. Coleman Young Coleman A. Young 1975 (1).png 66th Mayor of Detroit In office January 1, 1974 – January 3, 1994 Preceded by Roman Gribbs Succeeded by Dennis Archer 40th President of the United States Conference of Mayors In office 1982–1983 Preceded by Helen Boosalis Succeeded by Richard Fulton Member of the Michigan Senate from the 4th district In office January 1, 1965 – 1973 Preceded by Charles S. Blondy Succeeded by David S. Holmes, Jr. Personal details Born Coleman Alexander Young May 24, 1918 Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S. Died November 29, 1997 (aged 79) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Resting place Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Political party Democratic Spouse(s) Marion McClellan ​ ​(m. 1947; div. 1954)​ Nadine Baxter ​ ​(m. 1955; div. 1960)​ Children Coleman Young II Profession Politician Military service Branch/service United States Army Army Air Forces Years of service 1942–1946 Rank Second Lieutenant Unit 477th Bombardment Group Battles/wars World War II Young had emerged from the far-left element in Detroit, and moderated somewhat after his election as mayor. He called an ideological truce and gained widespread support from the city's business leaders.[1][2] The new mayor was energetic in the construction of the Joe Louis Arena, and upgrading the city's mass transit system. He assisted General Motors in building its new "Poletown" plant at the site of the former Dodge Main plant in Hamtramck. Some opponents said that he pulled money out of the neighborhoods to rehabilitate the downtown business district, but he said "there were no other options."[3] In 1981, Young received the Spingarn Medal for achievement from the NAACP.[4] Early life and education Edit Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to William Coleman Young, a dry cleaner, and Ida Reese Jones. His family moved in 1923 to Detroit, as part of the Great Migration out of the South to industrial cities that offered more opportunity. His family later converted to Catholicism, though Young was denied entry to a Catholic high school due to his race.[5] Young graduated from Eastern High School in 1935.[6] He became a member of the United Auto Workers, and worked for Ford Motor Company. Later Young worked for the United States Post Office Department.[6] During World War II, Young served in the 477th Medium-Bomber Group (the renowned Tuskegee Airmen) of the United States Army Air Forces as a second lieutenant, bombardier, and navigator.[7][8] As a lieutenant in the 477th, Young played a role in the Freeman Field Mutiny in 1945. Some 162 African-American officers were arrested for resisting segregation at a base near Seymour, Indiana.[9][10] In the 1940s, Young was labelled a fellow traveler of the Communist Party by belonging to groups whose members also belonged to the Party, and was accused of being a former member.[11] Young's involvement in worker-oriented organizations, including the Progressive Party, the United Auto Workers and the National Negro Labor Council, made him a target of anti-Communist investigators, including the FBI and HUAC. He protested segregation in the Army and racial discrimination in the UAW. In 1948, Young supported Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace.[12] In 1952, Young stunned observers when he appeared before the McCarthy era House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and defied the congressmen. He made sarcastic retorts and repeatedly cited the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer whether or not he was a member of the Communist Party. The encounter came at a highly publicized formal hearing in Detroit. Young's performance made him a hero in Detroit's growing black community. To a committee member's statement that he seemed reluctant to fight communism, Young said: "I am not here to fight in any un-American activities, because I consider the denial of the right to vote to large numbers of people all over the South un-American." To the HUAC congressman from Georgia, he said: "I happen to know, in Georgia, Negro people are prevented from voting by virtue of terror, intimidation and lynchings. It is my contention you would not be in Congress today if it were not for the legal restrictions on voting on the part of my people."[13][14] He said to another HUAC congressman: "Congressman, neither me or none of my friends were at this plant the other day brandishing a rope in the face of John Cherveny, a young union organizer and factory worker who was threatened with repeated violence after members of the HUAC alleged that he might be a communist,[15] I can assure you I have had no part in the hanging or bombing of Negroes in the South. I have not been responsible for firing a person from his job for what I think are his beliefs, or what somebody thinks he believes in, and things of that sort. That is the hysteria that has been swept up by this committee."[16] According to historians Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Ronald Radosh, Coleman Young was "a secret CPUSA [Communist Party USA] member."[17] Political career Edit Young built his political base in Detroit on the East Side in the 1940s and 1950s, which had become a center of the African-American community. In 1960, he was elected as a delegate to help draft a new state constitution for Michigan. In 1964, Young won election to the Michigan State Senate. His most significant legislation was a law requiring arbitration in disputes between public-sector unions and municipalities. During his senate career, he also pointed out inequities in Michigan state funding, "spending $20 million on rural bus service and a fat zero for the same thing in Detroit."[18] Mayoralty Edit 1973 campaign Edit See also: 1973 Detroit mayoral election Coleman Young decided to run for mayor of Detroit in 1973. At the forefront of his campaign, he sought to address the increasing police violence suffered by black residents in the city. By 1972, the black population in Detroit was nearly half of the population — but was patrolled disproportionately by a white police department.[19] Specifically, Young notified Police Commissioner John Nichols that the police decoy unit, STRESS (Stop the Robberies and Enjoy Safe Streets), was a major racially charged problem of the city.[20] Officers deployed under STRESS had been accused of killing 22 people and arresting hundreds without cause during its 2+1⁄2 years of operation.[12] In his campaign, Young quoted "one of the problems is that the police run the city… STRESS is responsible for the explosive polarization that now exists; STRESS is an execution squad rather than an enforcement squad. As mayor, I will get rid of STRESS".[20] The police responded by endorsing John Nichols, the Police Commissioner who was running for mayor against Coleman Young. Throughout the campaign, Young had an edge over Nichols due to both a growing black population base and due to his broad political experience in local, state, and national politics.[20] In opposition, Nichols took advantage of the white fear of black crime in the street in order to advance his campaign. Nichols represented a national trend of increased police power and brutality in post-riot cities, and therefore, in Young's opinion, had to be defeated.[20] While neither candidate openly spoke about race, after the fact, Young admitted that in 1973, “the race was about race”.[20] Both mayoral candidates were conscious of the high racial tensions in the city, but both attempted to appeal to all groups. In November 1973, Young narrowly defeated Nichols for mayor, becoming the first black mayor of Detroit. His election represented a major turning point in both the city's racial and political history. In his inaugural address, Mayor Young stated that “the first problem that we must face as citizens of this great city, the first fact that we must look squarely in the eye, is that this city has too long been polarized”.[20] He stated that "we can no longer afford the luxury of hatred and racial division. What is good for the black people of this city is good for the white people of this city. What is good for the rich people of this city is good for the poor people of this city. What is good for those who live in the suburbs is good for those of us who live in the central city".[20] Winning by such a small margin in a racially polarized city, Young knew the burden he would have to shoulder as mayor.[20] Young, 1981 Young served five terms as mayor of Detroit from 1974 to 1994. Young won re-election by wide margins in 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1989, to serve a total of 20 years as mayor, based largely on black votes. First mayoral term: 1974–1978 Edit As mayor during his first term, Young promptly disbanded the STRESS unit, began efforts to integrate the police department and increased patrols in high crime neighborhoods utilizing a community policing approach.[21] Young's effect on integrating the Detroit Police Department was successful; the proportion of blacks rose to more than 50 percent in 1993 from less than 10 percent in 1974 and has remained at about that level. Both actions were credited with reducing the number of brutality complaints against the city's police to 825 in 1982 from 2,323 in 1975.[12] When asked in an interview about the high and low points of his first term, Young responded that avoiding the near riot he faced after the shooting of a black teenager was a high. He stated that "we found a police department, which had been guilty of excesses in the past, being professional and, even under provocation, not firing a single shot. We also found leaders, black and white who had the courage to get out there in front of angry citizens and help keep the peace".[20] In contrast, his biggest challenge was the fact that Detroit had been in a depression for the two and a half years he had been in office. He stated that “most of [his] time has been spent putting out fires instead of going ahead with plans for the city”,[20] something he hoped to address in his second term. Second mayoral term: 1978–1982 Edit In 1978, Mayor Young won his second term as mayor and planned to execute many campaign promises unfulfilled from his first term. At the forefront of his agenda, Young wanted to ensure affirmative action initiatives in order to positively transform the racial makeup of city departments, particularly the police department.[20] Young addressed the issue of Affirmative Action head on, and welcomed the NAACP to Detroit with the words, "welcome to Detroit, the Affirmative Action City… I can’t think of any recent issue that is more important to the future of minorities and women and the whole American people than the issue of affirmative action" (Young, 1978).[20] His efforts for affirmative action were stalled in 1981, when a budget crisis forced Detroit voters to approve an income tax hike and city officials to sell $125 million in emergency bonds.[20] Young had to convince Detroit voters to trust his plans to save the city from bankruptcy, and he had to convince state legislature and municipal workers to accept a two-year wage freeze. In addition, Black unemployment in the city remained at 25 percent – all issues that Young attempted to tackle during his third term. Third mayoral term: 1982–1986 Edit Young's third term as mayor focused heavily on both the covert and overt forces of racism that divided the city and suburbs. Being mayor of a predominantly black city surrounded by predominantly white suburbs meant that Young dealt with an inescapable rift between the two.[20] In 1984, Young stated that racism was "at an all time high" (Young, 1984).[20] Young understood the need for suburban-city cooperation as essential for regional growth; the two needed to work with each other. Young attempted to resolve this division by attracting more jobs in the city for a stronger partnership. From 1982 until 1983, Young served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.[22] Fourth mayoral term: 1986–1990 Edit During his fourth term, Young continued to work on improving racial relations of the city and neighborhood standards. He worked on many successful projects to build more than 1,800 apartment units in the city, with “50 percent black and 50 percent white, half from within Detroit and half from outside”.[20] He sought for these projects to promote economic and racial integration in the city. Fifth mayoral term: 1990–1994 Edit During Mayor Young's fifth and final term, the Detroit community had sharply divided opinions about his response to the death of a young Black man Malice Green after a beating by two white police officers.[23] Green's death on November 5, 1992, occurred only months after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which protested the acquittal of police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.[24] At the time, a writer for the Detroit News and Free Press said, "the foundation upon which Mayor Coleman Young built his career and his administration was rocked Thursday by the beating death of a Detroit man at the hands of Detroit police officers."[20] Legacy Edit Integrating the police department was one of Young's greatest accomplishments in improving race relations in the city.[20] He also presided over two fiscal crises.[20] Throughout his time as mayor, Young was an outspoken advocate for large Detroit construction projects, and his administration saw the completion of the Renaissance Center, Detroit People Mover, the General Motors Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly Plant, the Detroit Receiving Hospital, the Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly Plant, the Riverfront Condominiums, the Millender Center Apartments, the Harbortown retail and residential complex, 150 West Jefferson, One Detroit Center and the Fox Theater restoration, among other developments. Detroit experienced a severe population drop during Young's mayoralty, suffering a loss of 500,000 residents.[20] Young attributed this 40 percent drop in population to the deterioration of neighborhoods which he promptly worked to overcome. Instead of agonizing over the issue, Young came up with ways to correct some of the imbalances between land and people.[20] Young's administration sought to redevelop many neighborhoods throughout Detroit in order to revitalize the city's landscape. These construction projects often led to opposition among neighborhood activists. This opposition typically manifested itself in rigorous budget debate, rather than in serious electoral challenges against Young. Most of the time Young prevailed over this opposition, seeking jobs and economic stimulus as a way to help rebuild Detroit's neighborhoods.[25] Personal life Assessment Quotes Edit Learn more This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. (November 2019) Coleman Young was known for his blunt statements, frequently using profanity. On trying to enroll at De La Salle Collegiate High School in Detroit: A brother in the order asked if I was Hawaiian. I told him, 'No, Brother, I'm colored.' He tore up the application form right in front of my nose. I'll never forget it. It was my first real jolt about what it means to be black. That was the end of me and the Catholic Church.[41] I'm smiling all the time. That doesn't mean a God damned 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![42] In his first term, when he went to Washington DC to meet the Housing and Urban Development secretary, Young was greeted by a lower-ranking black official to whom he said: I didn't come to see the house nigger. Get me the man.[43] On mortality: I know goddamned well that I am not immortal, nor do I have any mortal lock on the position of mayor. I'm a phase in the history of this city and, depending on your perspective, a brief one. On how he would like to be remembered: I suppose I'd like to be remembered as the mayor who served in a period of ongoing crisis and took some important steps to keep the city together, but left office with his work incomplete.[44] Legacy Further reading See also References External links Last edited 7 days ago by Citation bot RELATED ARTICLES 1967 Detroit riot American race riot History of Detroit History of African Americans in Detroit History of African Americans in Detroit Wikipedia Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted. Privacy policy Terms of Use Desktop