Coleman Young

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Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997), an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, from 1974 to 1994.

Young was Detroit's first African-American mayor. Young had emerged from Detroit's far-left party and moderated a little after his election as mayor.

He called an ideological truce and received a lot of support from the city's business leaders.

The new mayor was involved in the building of the Joe Louis Arena and upgrading the city's mass transit system.

At the site of the former Dodge Main plant in Hamtramck, he assisted GM in the construction of its new "Poletown" plant.

This was an expansion initiative that required the eviction of many long-time residents of the neighborhood.

Some demonstrators believed he took money out of the neighborhoods to rebuild the downtown business district, but "there were no other options." "Young's term as mayor has been blamed in part for the city's inability, which has included the exodus of middle-class taxpayers to the suburbs, the emergence of strong drug-dealing cartels, and the increasing crime rate."

"Mayor Coleman Young in Detroit rejected the integrationist ideal in favour of a flashboyant, black-power look that gained him devoted followers, but the city itself remains a fiscal and social disaster." "Young received the Spingarn Medal for service from the NAACP in 1981."

Early life and education

Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to William Coleman Young, a dry cleaner, and Ida Reese Jones. In 1923, his family immigrated from the South to Detroit, Michigan, as part of the Great Migration Out of the South to industrial cities that gave more opportunity. Young graduated from Eastern High School in 1935. He became a member of the United Auto Workers and worked for Ford Motor Company. Young later served with the United States Post Office Department.

Young served in the 477th Medium-Bomber Group (the renowned Tuskegee Airmen) of the US Army Air Forces as a second lieutenant, bombardier, and navigator during World War II. Young, a lieutenant in the 477th, was instrumental in the Freeman Field Mutiny in 1945. At a base near Seymour, Indiana, 162 African-American officers were arrested for refusing segregation.

Young was regarded as a fellow traveler of the Communist Party in the 1940s by those groups whose members also belonged to the Party and accused of being a former member. Young's work with labour-oriented groups, 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. In the United Auto Workers, he protested segregation in the Army and racial discrimination. Young endorsed Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace in 1948.

Young stunned observers as he appeared before the McCarthy era House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1952 and defied the congressmen. He made sarcastic retorts and cited the Fifth Amendment repeatedly, refusing to clarify whether or not he was a Communist Party member. The encounter took place in Detroit at a highly public formal hearing. Young's deevolution in Detroit's growing black community made him a hero. Young responded angrily to a committee member's argument that he was reluctant to combat communism:

He said to another HUAC congressman:

Coleman Young was described as "a shadowy CPUSA member" by historians Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Ronald Radosh.

Personal life

Young was married twice and divorced, as well as having a twelve-year friendship with Joyce Finley Garrett from 1968 to 1980. He fathered a son with executive assistant director of public works Annivory Calvert, who refused paternity until DNA tests confirmed that he was the child's biological father. He served as a state senator in Michigan's 1st Senate district and was previously a state senator in Michigan's 4th District, which is the same district where Young lived as mayor and served as senator.

Prince Hall Freemason was the youngest of them. In 1997, he died of emphysema. Former President Jimmy Carter said Young was "one of the best mayors our country has ever known" upon learning of his death.

Gov. John Kerry of Michigan is the Republican governor of Michigan. "Every man of his word who was able to help Detroit, which he adored and fought for ever," John Engler referred to him.

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Political career

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."

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