DETROIT — Former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young led the city for 20 years, creating a colorful but controversial legacy as the first Black mayor of Michigan’s largest city.
State Sen. Adam Hollier, D-Detroit, is introducing a resolution to replace the longtime Michigan Democrats’ selection of Lewis Cass in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol with a statue of Young. The move requires the approval of the Republican-led Michigan Legislature and requires the approval of the funding to build the proposed statue.
The proposed resolution is prompting a revisiting of Young’s career, including the comments and controversies that made him a central figure not only in Metro Detroit but through the state and nation.
Labor activities: After graduating from a Detroit high school, Young joined an apprentice school for electricians through Ford Motor Co. But a less qualified White apprentice got the available electrician’s job, according to the Detroit Historical Society. Young was assigned to Ford’s assembly line and got involved in underground labor activities. He was fired after run-ins with company managers.
A Tuskegee airman: Young joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He served as a bombardier and navigator in the prestigious Tuskegee Airmen unit. The Tuskegee Airmen were the only all-African American unit flying in the U.S. military. Young was drafted for World War II.
He was arrested, along with 60 other Black officers, after trying to integrate an officers club called Club #2. The incident prompted headlines, resulting in the removal of the colonel over Freeman Field.
Grilled by HUAC: In 1952, Young was hauled before the House Un-American Activities Community for alleged Communist ties and sympathies.
When asked about Communist activity in Detroit, Young said, “I have no purpose of being here as a stool pigeon.”
“To answer to such a question, before such a committee would be in my opinion, a violation of my right from the First Amendment which provides for freedom of speech as I understand it, and for sanctity and privacy, of political belief and association,” he said.
Young later told the committee: “I consider the activities of this committee as un-American.”
State senator: Young was elected to the state Senate in 1964, becoming Michigan’s second Black senator after losing by “only a few votes” a state House seat in 1962, according to the Detroit Historical Society. In 1966, he was elected Democratic minority floor leader.
In 1968 Young became the first Black member of the Democratic National Committee.
Hit 8 Mile: When Young took office as Detroit’s first Black mayor in January 1974, crime was already a problem.
During his inaugural speech, Young said: “I issue open warnings now to all dope pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit. Hit 8 Mile Road!”
To Detroiters, Young’s admonition was a get-tough call for criminals not to prey on the city. To predominantly white suburbanites, it was perceived as an attempt by Detroit’s first Black mayor to spread crime into their communities.
Integrated police force: The police department was predominantly white when Young took office. But the mayor delivered on a campaign promise when he integrated the force and it became majority Black before he left office at the end of 1993.
‘Threshold of recovery’: In March 1977, Young’s administration saw the opening of the $337 million Detroit Renaissance Center, Detroit Plaza Hotel and four 39-story office towers along the city’s riverfront. The complex, which featured the tallest building in Michigan and the 73-story hotel, was hoped to aid in Detroit’s recovery.
That January, the mayor in his annual State of the City speech, lauded the project, a transportation plan and federal aid commitments on the way for the city at the time and described Detroit as “on the threshold of recovery.” He anticipated the center’s opening would mark a record year of conventions in the city and draw in massive crowds.
The development project at the time represented the largest infusion of new money in downtown Detroit’s history. It had been financed privately, under the leadership if Henry Ford II, who directed Detroit Renaissance, a coalition of business and civic leaders.
Emphasis on education: In 1978, Young was appointed chairman of the Education Committee for New Detroit, Inc., amid his efforts to take a more visible role in educational affairs, especially for Detroit Public Schools.
“New Detroit will focus heavily on educational issues this year, and Mayor Young’s leadership will be of great importance to us,” New Detroit Chairman Ray McDonald said in announcing the appointment that spring.
Young’s position on the committee continued a thrust established in his 1977 mayoral election campaign when Young acknowledged the deteriorating schools were a primary factor in the middle-class flight from Detroit.
Although Young noted during the race that he had no legal authority or responsibility for school policy, he stressed during an end-of-the-year press conference in 1977 that the city had lost more residents because of school problems than to crime and vowed to use his political clout in Lansing and Washington to improve school finances and operations.
He’d suggested that the then 226,000-student district be placed under the city’s control or that its superintendent be elected by the people.
“I don’t think we can restore this city to real economic health until we restore the schools,” Young had said.
The mayor also wanted to see the local school property tax abolished or reduced, with a corresponding increase in state income taxes.
The city hired two attorneys to initiate legal action to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s school aid formula.
Milliken coalition: A longtime Democrat, Young formed a strong relationship with Gov. Bill Milliken, a Republican from Traverse City.
He worked with Milliken to help Detroit survive financial problems in the 1970s by getting approved a $35 million-a-year state aid package — called the “equity package” — to institutions such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Public Library that served all of Michigan. They also worked to get legislative approval for the city to raise its income tax in 1981 during a recession.
When Young received a lifetime achievement award from the Detroit NAACP in 1995, he chose Milliken to introduce him.
Poletown plant: Young was a vigorous advocate for getting a General Motors Corp. factory built in Detroit along the border with Hamtramck.
But the city’s 1980 deal with GM for a Cadillac factory using eminent domain — the city’s power to take private property for a public use but with compensation — was controversial because it involved taking land in a neighborhood with Polish Americans, African Americans and immigrants to help a private company.
For Young, the move created much-needed jobs and development.
In the 1981, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the city could bulldoze a neighborhood with over 1,000 residences, 600 businesses and churches for the auto assembly plant. The decision remained controversial decades later, when the high court reversed itself in 2004 by banning the use of eminent domain for economic development. A voter-approved constitutional amendment not only further codified the ruling but placed more limits on government takings.
Avoided bankruptcy: Young avoided the city’s bankruptcy by relying on $270 million in revenues to accomplish a paper balance for his $1.598 billion budget. Young had predicted bankruptcy unless he got union concessions. In 1981, the city had a $119.6 million deficit that was expected to balloon to $150 million the following year.
Vista corruption: In 1984, Young’s former Water Department and Sewer director Charles Beckham went to prison for racketeering and mail fraud connected to Vista Disposal Inc., which got a contract from Young to haul city sludge.
After an initial mistrial in 1983, Beckham was convicted for accepting bribes and clothing, and got a three-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay back $16,675 in illegal payoffs.
Also convicted was one of Young’s friends, Darralyn Bowers, an African American real estate broker who owned Vista Disposal, as well as Michael Ferrantino and Sam Cusenza, owners of waste disposal companies. Bowers was sentenced to four years in prison.
Federal prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to make Young a co-conspirator in the case.
The mayor blamed the Vista convictions on an attempt by suburbanites to wrest control of the Detroit-owned water system from the city. The water department eventually became part of a regional water system now known as the Great Lakes Water Authority as part of Detroit’s bankruptcy exit plan in 2013-14.
Kruggerand controversy: Young opposed apartheid in South Africa, so it became a scandal when it was learned that the mayor was a business partner with Kenneth Weiner, a former deputy police chief, in a company that dealt in diamonds and gold, including South African Krugerrands.
Young had said he had been aware of and supported the struggle for freedom in Africa, and specifically South Africa, since the late 1930s.
Weiner was convicted in a pyramid scheme that duped investors in precious metals, including South African Krugerrands, of millions of dollars.
When federal investigators began probing his business in 1986, Weiner contacted the FBI with allegations of corruption in the Young administration. Weiner worked as an informant for the FBI and IRS and taped conversations with the mayor.
The agencies later dropped him as an informant after determining he was unreliable. No charges were brought against Young, who cited the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in refusing to testify during the fraud trial, according to the Associated Press.
Nelson Mandela’s visit: In 1990, after South African dissident Nelson Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years of incarceration, Young invited him to visit Detroit.
The mayor had him meet the people of Detroit in late June of that year by holding a rally at Tiger Stadium. It was part of an eight-city, 10-day tour of the United States.
“I’m convinced he’s a great man, as great as any I have ever met,” Young told WDIV’s Emery King.
Police chief scandal: Young hired William Hart to be Detroit’s first Black police chief in 1976. But after 15 years, the chief became embroiled in scandal.
In 1992, Hart went to prison for embezzling $2.6 million from a secret police anti-drug fund and was convicted of filing false federal income tax returns in 1986 and 1987. Federal authorities said the chief used the money to buy luxury cars and gifts for three former girlfriends. He also renovated his home and a cottage in Canada.
Hart embezzled $1.3 million from the fund for undercover operations and allowed deputy chief Kenneth Weiner to steal another $1.3 million, federal prosecutors said.
Young defended Hart and countered that the FBI was targeting African-American officials.
“As far as I’m concerned, Bill Hart was a good man and a good cop,” Young said. “He rendered good and faithful service to the people of Detroit and his nearly 40 years of faithful service cannot go unrecognized.”
Mayoral legacy: When he stepped down in early 1994, Coleman Young was Detroit’s longest-serving mayor at 20 years, a record he still holds. He died in 1997.
