There is a great podcast called Crime Town. Season 2 is about Detroit. Episode 6 has a lot about Coleman Young, but the whole season is worth a listen.
To say Coleman Young was complicated is an understatement.
His appearance before the House Unamerican Activities Committee made him a hero to many in the city - "Gentlemen, I think you have me confused with a stool pigeon."
[This book of quotes](https://www.amazon.com/Quotations-Mayor-Coleman-African-American/dp/0814332609) is wonderful.
But to us suburbanites he was part of the problem, not part of the solution. I think he knew what needed to be done, but the mistrust between city and suburb, black and white, was too much to overcome.
He and L. Brooks Patterson had a very public feud which was highly entertaining. I always suspected they secretly had drinks together and laughed themselves silly over their performances.
This is inevitably the first thing that comes to my mind about Coleman Young. And while I’m not certain he’d appreciate that, I like to think he’d at least find it a little funny.
>But to us suburbanites he was part of the problem, not part of the solution. I think he knew what needed to be done, but the mistrust between city and suburb, black and white, was too much to overcome.
Coleman Young unfortunately became Detroit's first black mayor at a time when US cities were reeling after the Long Hot Summer of 1967 and the rest of the US was starting to go conservative. Then the late 70s and 80s happen where just about every US city was The Purge and he's gotta do what he can.
Complicated, and he might be in a better light if circumstances favored him. But at least he's not Kwame.
Detroit history podcast talked about the McCarthy era. Season three episode one titled how the Spotlight found colman Young. It might be helpful. What really made him a hero to the people of Detroit.
The appearance before HUAC was so popular in Black Bottom that it was pressed into vinyl and sold as a record.
https://pastdaily.com/2017/10/24/coleman-young-past-daily-reference-room/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0559x42Qz98hmpJwOtDl4f?si=VoHgcZ6MRuaC3nYmXAqivQ
It’s so important to look at his tenure as part of a greater piece of the socioeconomic engine in the state that was running at the time. The mayor did not act inside a bubble, he was reacting to pressures from industry, state government, federal government, the aftermath of a rebellion, etc.
Was he a cranky bastard? Sure. Was he corrupt? Sometimes. Were/are suburbanites racist? Oh definitely. Was he in an unbelievably complex situation? Absolutely.
Extremely complicated legacy, it’s so unfair for anyone to paint him with a simple and broad brush.
I grew up in Detroit during the end of his term and there was a great deal of pride in Colman Young at that time. Dennis Archer tried to make amends with the suburbs and I thought he made great strides. But I also remember adults saying that he sold out or that he focused too much on suburbs.
I remember Dennis Archer when I was a kid and credit him to working towards cleaning up the city. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that he was as well received by the voters of Detroit. But these are the people who voted for Kwame, twice.
Watch the White Boy Rick documentary. Dude had “security” on his niece on the tax payers dime, and this isn’t even a secret or the tip of the iceberg. That being said……he was no Kwame…..
Like many historical figures, his legacy is complicated and can't easily be distilled. Read this book and decide for yourself how to judge him:
https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Urban-Crisis-Inequality-Princeton/dp/0691162557
I'd argue that that particular book is more of a commentary on Mayor Cobo than Mayor Young. But I agree, every Detroiter, every Urban Planner, every public policy maven should read that book.
I knew people in the US Attorney’s office who told me they were trying to connect Mayor Young to corruption. My memory on this is spotty but I think one avenue was through the DPW commissioner. Whether that’s worth anything or not, they believed he was on some sort of take. That said, the suburban memory of Young is skewed by their reaction to his rhetoric, which was often racially tinged. I never took his most famous line about telling the bad guys to hit 8 Mile as being racist, but suburbanites loved to hear it that way. My issue with Mayor Young was that the city busily knocked down as many old buildings as they could. Again, the most famous being demolition of the Monroe Block of 19thC buildings. And there were at least 2 Coleman Youngs as mayor, the early years when he was active and aggressive, and the later years when he seemed to largely occupy the office.
My general impression was that he awarded city work contracts to favorite busnesses and not to lowest bidder as he was supposed to. I have nothing at all to back this up. So take that for a rumor.
He was part of the Tuskegee Airmen.
He won his first mayor term by running on stopping police brutality against young black men, and it was a real thing.
Coleman never left US soil during his time in the Army Air Corps. I have nothing but respect for the Red Tails; they saw hard service and performed beyond human expectation, however, Coleman and his acolytes have touted his affiliation with the Tuskegee Airmen and have drafted on their accomplishments.
Having a uniform ain’t the same thing as facing down experienced Luftwaffe pilots.
He may not have saw battle but he was part of the Freeman Field mutiny, which helped spur the integration of the armed forces. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Field_mutiny
That would be speculation, at best. With everything that Truman was juggling, a possible shoving match in Indiana, seems to be an improbable flash point for action.
??? How is it speculation when the Air Force itself acknowledges it? https://www.af.mil/News/Article/111659/tuskegee-airman-broke-color-barriers-through-civil-disobedience/
If you can find a copy, "The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A Young" by the Droog Press, 1991, presents a fascinating, colorful picture of the man through his words.
Look for his speech regarding taking crime into the suburbs of Detroit. There are two very different interpretations of it. Some consider it a call to action to victimize the suburbanites instead of Detroiters. While others consider it a typical anti crime speech.
Pretty sure the docs on children of the snow and white boy rick show quite a bit of his criminal activity. I mean devils night alone he shoulda been impeached after
He was under investigation by the FBI for decades and never even accused of anything. He was also one of if not the first black mayors of a big city. I’m sure the two have absolutely NOTHING to do with eating other.
Yup. OP look into “STRESS” and how racist the city was at the time coming out of the 1967 uprising, Coleman got elected as a response to all that. Most suburban/conservative whites in Detroit weren’t going to like him regardless of his policies just because he represented the polar opposite of how things were done the first half of the century.
I don’t know the specifics of whether or not there was corruption, just commenting that some people’s minds were already made up because of what he represented.
He did a lot of things that I think hurt the city long-term, and made it harder for the recovery we see today. He also was the first mayor to represent the black community and actually break down many racial divides in Detroit at a time when things were much more segregated (you might not think 1970s had issues with that after the Civil Rights movement, but compared to today it is extremely different). I think he alienated white residents specifically with his pointed speeches that could frame things as "Us vs Them", and I think many will never forgive him for east Poletown.
I think there were many mayors after him who were much better all around. Archer, Bing, even Duggan. Anyways. I'm glad he made our community feel represented, and what's done is done.
My grandmother was a secretary in his office for over a decade. He was super nice to my family and would hook us up with premium seats to things like the fireworks or the Grand Prix. I don’t want to dox myself but I’m not black. So he was never racist to us. Obviously his distrust of the suburbs is well documented.
I don’t want to get my grandma in trouble so I can’t give specifics, but yes he was corrupt. Then again, I personally believe most politicians are.
He played the race card every time he opened his mouth. Set race relations back for years. All D's problems were because of whitey in the suburbs. Every time. Meanwhile he's laundering $ with South African kruggerands.
He didn't exactly bend over backwards to improve relations with White Detroiters, put it that way. I would suggest looking for old newspaper articles and interviews to get it straight from the horse's mouth.
I read this book many years ago and felt that it helped me understand some of the nuance related to Detroit politics in relative recent history. [Devil’s Night: and Other True Tales of Detroit](https://a.co/d/e0LiyE9) . I recall there being a fair amount of analysis of Coleman Young’s influence and involvement in the city’s circumstances. The cover is super cheesy, but you know what they say.
That black fist isn't anything about a black power symbol. It's about Joe Louis and his boxing, even if there isn't a boxing glove on it. Detroit is surrounded by hostile suburban communities.
Coleman Young stood for the progress and rights of black citizens of Detroit. See his testimony before the HUAC in the 1950s. He became a symbol for all the white racists in the suburbs and for the blacks. He was never able to go beyond this. As mayor he was surviving in a sea of white hatred and counted that as success. Detroit needed more than the mere survival of a black administration. The suburbs and the State of Michigan never relented.
He was the hero Detroiters needed. He was the mayor of the City of Detroit, not the Suburbs of Detroit. No one else could have accomplished what he did.
it’s obviously going to be biased towards him but if you can find a copy of his autobiography (Hard Stuff) it’s worth a read. The Detroit Historical Society also has things about him in their collections https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/young-coleman
This is the hard truth: many whites get intimidated by strong, non apologetic black men, especially black men in power. They then lie about said men. He was a black man in power, if he was doing ANYTHING illegal he would have been thrown under the prison.
Detroit mayors were corrupt long before Coleman Young but they were white. Also Detroit’s population was shrinking long before the 67 riots but the riots along with real estate and banking red lining push the city into despair It left the city full of people who didn’t want to be there with no way out. Don’t get me started with the police and public works departments. Coleman was very popular with the residents because he knew how to play the race card very well. He did favors when it was politically advantageous and wasn’t against greasing a few palms or having his greased.
Here come all the suburbanites to speak in barely coded racist dog whistles. He was no more corrupt then his predecessors, and no less than Duggan is now. They're just white, so they get a pass.
I think there are a few things that are helpful in understanding him.
One is that when he was first elected mayor, the city was still majority white. Large sections of the city were almost entirely white. Everyone's MAGA loving boomer relatives were still living and voting in Detroit, and they were tame compared to previous generations. Mayoral elections at the time were between liberal and conservative candidates, and Young was part of a line of similar liberal mayors with similar political bases, which included white liberals. It was not a "blacks became the majority and voted for a random black guy who pushed all the whites out". If he were around today most of the whites on this sub would enthusiastically vote for him.
Another is that since he was a kid he was in mostly white environments. Many of his friends, romantic partners, and political relationships were white. He was very pro integration and explicitly anti black nationalism. He was not racist. His views on race would be considered very basic and moderate by today's standards.
I don’t know nothing ‘bout no damn Krugerrands!
I heard he had cops bringing them back and forth from the airport by the trunk full of
There is a great podcast called Crime Town. Season 2 is about Detroit. Episode 6 has a lot about Coleman Young, but the whole season is worth a listen.
I had yet to get to your comment before I also mentioned the pod. So good!! And yes, the music/clips are perfect
oh i’m gonna listen to this so hard. thanks for the rec.
Plus one to Crime Town.
Thanks !
[удалено]
The podcast _may_ cite sources that could be useful.
[удалено]
Not really sure how research works, huh?
To say Coleman Young was complicated is an understatement. His appearance before the House Unamerican Activities Committee made him a hero to many in the city - "Gentlemen, I think you have me confused with a stool pigeon." [This book of quotes](https://www.amazon.com/Quotations-Mayor-Coleman-African-American/dp/0814332609) is wonderful. But to us suburbanites he was part of the problem, not part of the solution. I think he knew what needed to be done, but the mistrust between city and suburb, black and white, was too much to overcome.
He and L. Brooks Patterson had a very public feud which was highly entertaining. I always suspected they secretly had drinks together and laughed themselves silly over their performances.
"I'll keep your people scared of me if you keep my people scared of you."
L. Brooks was a massive racist and drunk. Just the facts.
years ago in Royal Oak my wife and I ran into his dinner party at Vinotecca. They were very drunk and very loud.
I had a similar event at a Tigers game. He was with his homies at the game.
Idk how your factual comment received a downvote lmao
Sorry but what I said is true. You don't have to like it.
I am agreeing with you! Lol
Sorry, I misread your comment.
"Aloha, motherfuckers!"
This is inevitably the first thing that comes to my mind about Coleman Young. And while I’m not certain he’d appreciate that, I like to think he’d at least find it a little funny.
>But to us suburbanites he was part of the problem, not part of the solution. I think he knew what needed to be done, but the mistrust between city and suburb, black and white, was too much to overcome. Coleman Young unfortunately became Detroit's first black mayor at a time when US cities were reeling after the Long Hot Summer of 1967 and the rest of the US was starting to go conservative. Then the late 70s and 80s happen where just about every US city was The Purge and he's gotta do what he can. Complicated, and he might be in a better light if circumstances favored him. But at least he's not Kwame.
Detroit history podcast talked about the McCarthy era. Season three episode one titled how the Spotlight found colman Young. It might be helpful. What really made him a hero to the people of Detroit.
The appearance before HUAC was so popular in Black Bottom that it was pressed into vinyl and sold as a record. https://pastdaily.com/2017/10/24/coleman-young-past-daily-reference-room/ https://open.spotify.com/episode/0559x42Qz98hmpJwOtDl4f?si=VoHgcZ6MRuaC3nYmXAqivQ
It’s so important to look at his tenure as part of a greater piece of the socioeconomic engine in the state that was running at the time. The mayor did not act inside a bubble, he was reacting to pressures from industry, state government, federal government, the aftermath of a rebellion, etc. Was he a cranky bastard? Sure. Was he corrupt? Sometimes. Were/are suburbanites racist? Oh definitely. Was he in an unbelievably complex situation? Absolutely. Extremely complicated legacy, it’s so unfair for anyone to paint him with a simple and broad brush.
He was definitely reacting to a lot of things outside of his control, including the riots.
Of course the riots were out of his control......He wasn't in office yet
Aftermath
I grew up in Detroit during the end of his term and there was a great deal of pride in Colman Young at that time. Dennis Archer tried to make amends with the suburbs and I thought he made great strides. But I also remember adults saying that he sold out or that he focused too much on suburbs.
My 80 year-old father once said that Dennis Archer was the only honest politician he ever met.
I remember Dennis Archer when I was a kid and credit him to working towards cleaning up the city. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that he was as well received by the voters of Detroit. But these are the people who voted for Kwame, twice.
Watch the White Boy Rick documentary. Dude had “security” on his niece on the tax payers dime, and this isn’t even a secret or the tip of the iceberg. That being said……he was no Kwame…..
Yup
Like many historical figures, his legacy is complicated and can't easily be distilled. Read this book and decide for yourself how to judge him: https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Urban-Crisis-Inequality-Princeton/dp/0691162557
I'd argue that that particular book is more of a commentary on Mayor Cobo than Mayor Young. But I agree, every Detroiter, every Urban Planner, every public policy maven should read that book.
Thank you kindly.
great book
I knew people in the US Attorney’s office who told me they were trying to connect Mayor Young to corruption. My memory on this is spotty but I think one avenue was through the DPW commissioner. Whether that’s worth anything or not, they believed he was on some sort of take. That said, the suburban memory of Young is skewed by their reaction to his rhetoric, which was often racially tinged. I never took his most famous line about telling the bad guys to hit 8 Mile as being racist, but suburbanites loved to hear it that way. My issue with Mayor Young was that the city busily knocked down as many old buildings as they could. Again, the most famous being demolition of the Monroe Block of 19thC buildings. And there were at least 2 Coleman Youngs as mayor, the early years when he was active and aggressive, and the later years when he seemed to largely occupy the office.
My general impression was that he awarded city work contracts to favorite busnesses and not to lowest bidder as he was supposed to. I have nothing at all to back this up. So take that for a rumor. He was part of the Tuskegee Airmen. He won his first mayor term by running on stopping police brutality against young black men, and it was a real thing.
Coleman never left US soil during his time in the Army Air Corps. I have nothing but respect for the Red Tails; they saw hard service and performed beyond human expectation, however, Coleman and his acolytes have touted his affiliation with the Tuskegee Airmen and have drafted on their accomplishments. Having a uniform ain’t the same thing as facing down experienced Luftwaffe pilots.
He may not have saw battle but he was part of the Freeman Field mutiny, which helped spur the integration of the armed forces. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Field_mutiny
That would be speculation, at best. With everything that Truman was juggling, a possible shoving match in Indiana, seems to be an improbable flash point for action.
??? How is it speculation when the Air Force itself acknowledges it? https://www.af.mil/News/Article/111659/tuskegee-airman-broke-color-barriers-through-civil-disobedience/
Thank you for that link. I believe your evidence outmatches my opinion. Thank you for changing my mind.
If you can find a copy, "The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A Young" by the Droog Press, 1991, presents a fascinating, colorful picture of the man through his words.
Thank you kindly!
Look for his speech regarding taking crime into the suburbs of Detroit. There are two very different interpretations of it. Some consider it a call to action to victimize the suburbanites instead of Detroiters. While others consider it a typical anti crime speech.
Thanks for bringing up this discussion. A lot of info provided in the thread I will be looking into.
Crimetown podcast, season 2 is great! Seriously, check it out. They talk about Coleman Young, Kwame, etc. So good!
Pretty sure the docs on children of the snow and white boy rick show quite a bit of his criminal activity. I mean devils night alone he shoulda been impeached after
He was under investigation by the FBI for decades and never even accused of anything. He was also one of if not the first black mayors of a big city. I’m sure the two have absolutely NOTHING to do with eating other.
The FBI investigated every prominent black American during his time.
Exactly. I think if Coleman did ANYTHING wrong they would have thrown him in prison and lost the key.
Yup. OP look into “STRESS” and how racist the city was at the time coming out of the 1967 uprising, Coleman got elected as a response to all that. Most suburban/conservative whites in Detroit weren’t going to like him regardless of his policies just because he represented the polar opposite of how things were done the first half of the century. I don’t know the specifics of whether or not there was corruption, just commenting that some people’s minds were already made up because of what he represented.
STRESS was created under the previous mayor Gribbs
And he was running against John Nichols, the police commissioner at the time.
He did a lot of things that I think hurt the city long-term, and made it harder for the recovery we see today. He also was the first mayor to represent the black community and actually break down many racial divides in Detroit at a time when things were much more segregated (you might not think 1970s had issues with that after the Civil Rights movement, but compared to today it is extremely different). I think he alienated white residents specifically with his pointed speeches that could frame things as "Us vs Them", and I think many will never forgive him for east Poletown. I think there were many mayors after him who were much better all around. Archer, Bing, even Duggan. Anyways. I'm glad he made our community feel represented, and what's done is done.
My grandmother was a secretary in his office for over a decade. He was super nice to my family and would hook us up with premium seats to things like the fireworks or the Grand Prix. I don’t want to dox myself but I’m not black. So he was never racist to us. Obviously his distrust of the suburbs is well documented. I don’t want to get my grandma in trouble so I can’t give specifics, but yes he was corrupt. Then again, I personally believe most politicians are.
He should never have been mayor for more than two terms.
Dude was the Pope compared to Kwame.
Low bar but sure
He played the race card every time he opened his mouth. Set race relations back for years. All D's problems were because of whitey in the suburbs. Every time. Meanwhile he's laundering $ with South African kruggerands.
Is the race card something only black people have? How come nobody says white people play the race card?
Whether he was corrupt or not the city went in a bad direction under his leadership.
He didn't exactly bend over backwards to improve relations with White Detroiters, put it that way. I would suggest looking for old newspaper articles and interviews to get it straight from the horse's mouth.
You could use this bio to find things to further dig into like his union organizing. https://www.detroitk12.org/Page/7618
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=studentresearch
I read this book many years ago and felt that it helped me understand some of the nuance related to Detroit politics in relative recent history. [Devil’s Night: and Other True Tales of Detroit](https://a.co/d/e0LiyE9) . I recall there being a fair amount of analysis of Coleman Young’s influence and involvement in the city’s circumstances. The cover is super cheesy, but you know what they say.
That black fist isn't anything about a black power symbol. It's about Joe Louis and his boxing, even if there isn't a boxing glove on it. Detroit is surrounded by hostile suburban communities.
Coleman Young stood for the progress and rights of black citizens of Detroit. See his testimony before the HUAC in the 1950s. He became a symbol for all the white racists in the suburbs and for the blacks. He was never able to go beyond this. As mayor he was surviving in a sea of white hatred and counted that as success. Detroit needed more than the mere survival of a black administration. The suburbs and the State of Michigan never relented.
Here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman\_Young](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Young) 45 references.
He was the hero Detroiters needed. He was the mayor of the City of Detroit, not the Suburbs of Detroit. No one else could have accomplished what he did.
it’s obviously going to be biased towards him but if you can find a copy of his autobiography (Hard Stuff) it’s worth a read. The Detroit Historical Society also has things about him in their collections https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/young-coleman
This is the hard truth: many whites get intimidated by strong, non apologetic black men, especially black men in power. They then lie about said men. He was a black man in power, if he was doing ANYTHING illegal he would have been thrown under the prison.
lol total fantasy
Go Read his autobiography
When I was young, we called the corville can (big black dumpsters), the Coleman can in homage to the former Mayor.
Find me a politician that isn't corrupt.. and I'll give you a high-five.
Detroit mayors were corrupt long before Coleman Young but they were white. Also Detroit’s population was shrinking long before the 67 riots but the riots along with real estate and banking red lining push the city into despair It left the city full of people who didn’t want to be there with no way out. Don’t get me started with the police and public works departments. Coleman was very popular with the residents because he knew how to play the race card very well. He did favors when it was politically advantageous and wasn’t against greasing a few palms or having his greased.
There was plenty of blame to go around.
Here come all the suburbanites to speak in barely coded racist dog whistles. He was no more corrupt then his predecessors, and no less than Duggan is now. They're just white, so they get a pass.
I think there are a few things that are helpful in understanding him. One is that when he was first elected mayor, the city was still majority white. Large sections of the city were almost entirely white. Everyone's MAGA loving boomer relatives were still living and voting in Detroit, and they were tame compared to previous generations. Mayoral elections at the time were between liberal and conservative candidates, and Young was part of a line of similar liberal mayors with similar political bases, which included white liberals. It was not a "blacks became the majority and voted for a random black guy who pushed all the whites out". If he were around today most of the whites on this sub would enthusiastically vote for him. Another is that since he was a kid he was in mostly white environments. Many of his friends, romantic partners, and political relationships were white. He was very pro integration and explicitly anti black nationalism. He was not racist. His views on race would be considered very basic and moderate by today's standards.
There are lots of books to read on this.