page_title: Coleman Young
hierarchical_section_title: Coleman Young
caption_attribution_description: English: photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran aka Carptrash 03:46, 18 June 2006 (UTC) Coleman Young mayor of Detroit, MI
context_page_description: Coleman Alexander Young was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit.
  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. 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. This was an expansion project that required evicting many long-time residents in the neighborhood. 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."
  Young's tenure as mayor has been blamed in part for the city's ills, which have included the exodus of middle-class taxpayers to the suburbs, the emergence of powerful drug-dealing gangs, and the rising crime rate. Political scientist James Q.
context_section_description: 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.
  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. 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. This was an expansion project that required evicting many long-time residents in the neighborhood. 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."
  Young's tenure as mayor has been blamed in part for the city's ills, which have included the exodus of middle-class taxpayers to the suburbs, the emergence of powerful drug-dealing gangs, and the rising crime rate. Political scientist James Q. Wilson wrote that, "In Detroit, Mayor Coleman Young rejected the integrationist goal in favor of a flamboyant, black-power style that won him loyal followers, but he left the city a fiscal and social wreck."
  In 1981, Young received the Spingarn Medal for achievement from the NAACP.
caption: Coleman A. Young, circa 1981
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