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The Detroit Vol THE DETROIT VOL. 3 NO. 4 75 CENTS S undayTo u r n a l b — n m i I! 11 i r r » i ! i » i i n i t i i ©TDSJ T h e M a y o r 1918-1997 Saying goodbye, together he day before, we had agreed to meet at 6 a.m. sharp in the McDonald’s parking lot on Mack, just off 1-75. He was driving in from his night shift job in northwest Oakland TCounty; I from my apartment near downtown Detroit. Because I was afraid of being late, I laid out my clothes the night before and set the alarms on three different clocks. He was more worried about staying S u s a n awake than getting up. W a t s o n I arrived at the meeting place shortly before 6 and cruised the lot looking for his beige sports car. He wasn’t there yet. I was about to make another swing through the area when I noticed an old car following me. Shadows blurred the outline of the driver’s face. Then I heard it - the incessant honking of a horn. The car pulled alongside mine; I rolled down the window and there, smiling up at me from a car that now looked totally familiar, was my son. He followed me through the sparse morning traffic to a muddy lot on Warren where a few other folks had parked their cars. Then, hand in hand, we See WATSON, Page 9 The Mayor’s life and career 6 Tributes from friends and colleagues 8-9 Young on the newspaper strike 11 Deep roots in labor 12 Journal photo by HUGH GRANNUM Pieces of a conversation 13 They went by the thousands to the Museum of African American History on Wednesday and Thursday, drawn by a shared love for Coleman Young and a desire to pay their last respects to a cherished friend.In his own uncensored glory 14-15 PAGE 10 THE DETROIT SUNDAY JOURNAL DEC. 7, 1997 T h e M ayor-1918-1997 YOUNG, From Page 7 oned on bribery charges. In the early 1990s, Police Chief William Hart their reputations were destroyed, went to prison for embezzling funds. careers wrecked. Young and other Young, ever distrustful of the federal NNLC leaders were called to testify government, insisted until his death when the committee came to Detroit. that he was the target of the probes Intentionally defiant, Young told and that Beckham and Hart were the committee that he considered its scapegoats. activities un-American. When asked to respond to questions about etroit, like most other Rust Communist activity in Detroit, he • Belt cities, continued to lose replied: ‘You have me mixed up with jobs and residents in the 20 a stool pigeon.” years from 1973 to 1993. But it was his confrontation with DBut the city also was the site of major the committee over the pronunciation economic development projects. of the word “Negro” that provided the Under Young’s watch, Cobo Hall and most memorable moments of the City Airport expanded, the city built hearing. Young was being questioned a system of neighborhood recreation by Georgia Congressman John Wood centers, the Fox Theatre district and committee counsel Frank became a thriving reality and the city Photo by HUGH GRANNUM Tavenner when the following secured two new auto plants that exchange occurred, in the words of The Mayor is clearly tickled by joyful birthday greetings from Detroit middle-school students.saved thousands of jobs. In one of the his autobiography: projects, the massive Poletown plant, ‘You told us,” said Tavenner in his1971 to lure and capture robbers. black and 50 percent white.” city attorneys underestimated the plantation dialect, “that you were During the unit’s bloody tenure, Young and the city faced a grueling cost of land acquisition by more than executive secretary of the National STRESS officers shot and killed 22 and exhilarating 20 years together. $150 million. Niggra Congress.” people, all but one of them black. During President Jimmy Carter’s In the early 1980s, Young became a “That word is ‘Negro,’not ‘Niggra.’” Disbanding that unit was one of his administration, Young was among thefather for the first time when his for­ “I said ‘Negro.’I think you are mis­first steps when he took office. He premier Democratic politicians in the mer companion, city appointee taken. ” also wasted no time in launching a nation, and his friendship with Carter Annivory Calvert, gave birth to his “I hope I am; speak more clearly. ” program to hire and promote blacks caused federal dollars to pour into theson. While some citizens raised their With that, I flushed out my friend and women. Despite criticism and city. eyebrows, others, particularly men of from Georgia. “I will appreciate it if court challenges, Young implemented But persistent budget problems, a certain age, cheered. The mayor set you will not argue with counsel,” an affirmative action program for the exaggerated by a dwindling tax base, up a substantial trust fund for the Wood said. police department. still dogged the city. In the 1970s, the child after blood tests proved he was “It isn’t my purpose to argue,” I When whites accused him of dis­ city was forced to the lay off about the father. In recent years the two replied. “As a Negro, I resent the slur­criminating against them, he quickly 1,000 police officers, and Detroit’s spent more and more time together. ring o f the nam e o f m y race. ” pointed out that his appointees were soaring homicide rate - it topped 700 In his last years in office, Young’s Dave Moore remembered the out­ equally divided between blacks and in 1974 - earned it the label of health began to fail; many of his pouring of support generated by whites. As he told radio commentator Murder City. The city’s economic trusted advisers died, and he spent Young’s feistiness. “Coleman Young JoAnn Watson in a 1994 interview: health was inextricably linked to the more and more time in the Manoo- could have been elected king of “When I became mayor in 1974, 95 roller-coaster fortunes of the auto gian Mansion in increasing isolation. Detroit by blacks and whites for what percent of the appointees of my pre­industry. When the oil crisis of the Saying that 20 years in office was he said to that committee,” he said. decessor were white; and there were 1970s devastated the industry, enough, he announced in 1993 he As it was, Young won his fii;st elec­ some who urged that turnabout was Detroit’s unemployment rate soared. would not seek a sixth term. tive office in 1961: a delegate’s seat in fair play and that I make 95 percent The problems weren’t all economic. “I know one thing,” he told JoAnn the state convention that rewrote of my appointees black. However, myFederal investigators launched highly Watson in that 1994 interview. “I’m Michigan’s Constitution. Three years approach to administration and my publicized probes into allegations of where I am today only because of the later he was elected to the state principles always dictated fairness corruption in the police and water struggles and the heartaches of mil­ Senate, where he championed civil and justice in policy and practice; departments. lions before me. And I know one other rights, open housing and union caus­and I worked to achieve a city per­ In the late 1980s, water department thing. ... The struggle.does not stop es. He quickly earned a reputation assonnel base that was 50 percent director Charles Beckham was impris- with me. The struggle goes on.” an effective legislator able to form coalitions with outstate senators, and once again he fell into the good graces of the labor movement. Young’s friends pay theirlast respects n the 1960s Detroit was a city in hey were all there Friday. titans, community activists, soloistsbered Young’s gleeful smile and his turmoil. The black population, Those who loved him; those and choirs filled the sanctuary of deep, gurgling laugh that started which was pushing past the 30- who feared him. Those who Greater Grace Temple in northwest somewhere in his toes and tickled its percent mark, viewed the police learned from him and those Detroit. way to freedom. “I loved that laugh,” I department as an army of occupa­Twho delighted in his profanity but The Rev. Charles Adams, pastor of Milliken said. tion. Businesses and white residents never understood its profundity. Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, From the Rev. Charles Butler, continued the exodus that had begun Those who respected his courage spun an oratorical tribute that drew Young’s pastor, to former UAW presi­ in the 1950s. And on an early Sundayfrom afar as they struggled to make it the 4,000 people inside the temple to dent Doug Fraser to Congressman morning in 1967, the city erupted in through another day, and those who their feet and made them cheer. John Conyers Jr., who once ran for a blazing and bloody rebellion that called him daddy, brother, uncle, Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, the Young’s seat, people spoke of a man took more than 40 lives before it was friend, beloved. man who now carries the heavy man­who had the courage of his convictions; finally quelled. They were all there Friday to cele­ tle of leadership, told the audience in a man of both vision and action; a man It was against this backdrop that brate the life and to mourn the pass­ rising intensity that he has come to of tender mercies, boundless mirth and Sen.
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