Young, Coleman Alexander (1918-1997), won election as the first African American mayor of Detroit in 1973. Young, a Democrat, defeated Detroit police commissioner John F. Nichols. At the time, blacks made up about half of the city’s population. Young won support from more than 90 percent of the black voters and about 10 percent of the white voters. He took office in 1974 and was reelected four times, serving as Detroit’s mayor until 1993.
Young was born on May 24, 1918, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In the early 1920’s, his family moved to Detroit, where he graduated from high school. During World War II (1939-1945), Young served in the Army Air Corps.
During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Young organized labor unions in Detroit and worked to protect the civil rights of black workers. He later became active in the Democratic Party and, in 1960, won election as a delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention. From 1964 to 1973, he served in the Michigan Senate. Young became the first black member of the Democratic National Committee in 1968. In 1981, he won the Spingarn Medal , the highest honor given by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Young died on Nov. 29, 1997.
