Biography Search Display Name: Coleman Young Photo courtesy of the Tony Spina Collection, Wayne State University Year of Birth: 1918 Year of Death: 1997       Biography: Mayor of Detroit, 1974-1993 Coleman Young was one of the most influential and famous mayors in the history of Detroit. He led the city during a turbulent era where he had to cope with massive job losses in the auto industry, migration of people out of the city, and racial tensions. Coleman Alexander Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and spent most of his early years in Huntsville, Alabama. While in Huntsville his family was terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan. In search of better economic opportunities, Young's father moved the family north to Detroit in 1923. Young was a good student in high school and planned to attend the University of Michigan but was denied financial aid because of his race. In the 1930s, Young found an apprentice electrician program sponsored by Ford Motor Company. There, he became an underground union organizer and civil rights activist until he was drafted into the Army in 1942. Young served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Young returned to Detroit after the war and, by the 1950s, he became active in the Democratic Party. He was elected a Michigan State Senator in 1964, and in 1973, Young was elected Mayor of Detroit, a position he held for twenty years. Young retired as an international statesman and a powerful national politician. Although many loved him, and others disliked him, perhaps no mayor in the history of the city wielded more charisma and intellectual abilities than Coleman Young. He was one of the most influential shapers of modern Detroit.

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