Young Became A Hero In His 30s
After the War, Young continued his work as a union organizer.  He was elected director of organization of the Wayne County AFL-CIO in 1948.  The post made him the first black paid staff member.  He later became a leader of the National Negro Labor Council (NNLC), which organized black workers to get them decent wages.  The NNLC and Young drew the wrath of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating communism.  As the NNLC's executive secretary, Young was summoned before the committee in 1952.  His appearance turned into a showdown with the committee's legal counsel, who referred to Young's group as the National "Niggra" Labor Council.
Young corrected the lawyer's pronunciation and accused him of deliberately slurring the word to insult blacks.  The committee also tried to get Young to give testimony that would implicate any of his associates as Communists.  "I have indicated to you, to this committee, I am no stool pigeon," Young responded.  "I consider it an un-American activity to pry into a person's private thoughts, to pry into a person's associates.  I consider that an un-American activity."
Young also repeatedly challenged the committee's existence, saying it was unconstitutional and violated the rights of private citizens.  He also reprimanded Southern committee members for denying blacks the right to vote and the right to economic opportunity by intimidation and lynchings.

His courageous, defiant testimony amazed the audience, especially those not familiar with Young's skilled oratory and deep principles.  Only in his early 30s, Coleman Young became a hero to many Americans for standing against the committee's witch-hunt for Communists and its innate hypocrisy.  Yet his victory was the beginning of various personal defeats.  He still was blacklisted and barred from Detroit plants.  The UAW and other unions made sure Young found no work in the labor movement or in politics. And unbeknownst to Young, the FBI listed him as a "dangerous individual who should be one of the first picked up in an emergency and one of the first to be considered for future prosecution."  From that moment on, the FBI appeared to act as a clandestine, well-financed enemy bent on bringing down the young man.

Young Overcame "Hard Times"
Young fell into a period he described as "hard times".  He held a series of odd jobs:  a spotter and presser at a dry cleaner, taxi driver, and beef hauler.  Bad breaks never broke Coleman Young.  His battle to win racial equity in the Forties and Fifties had bloodied but not bowed him.  His battles also left him little time for a personal life:  he was married and divorced twice.  Still, he emerged tougher than ever.
He directed his prodigious energies to politics as the Sixties dawned.  It marked the start of a new era for Detroit and Coleman Young.  Politics, Young felt, would help cement the changes for racial and economic equality he had sought in the radical wing of the labor movement.  He ran successfully in 1961 for the Michigan Constitutional Convention and was instrumental in drafting the civil rights section of the new state constitution.  A year later, Young ran for the state House in a hotly contested race.  He lost by seven votes.  Doggedly, he raised his sights to the Senate and won the seat in 1964.
With his fiery personality and sometimes salty language, Young quickly rose to leadership.  In 1966, he became Democratic Floor Leader, the position responsible for pushing or squashing measures up for passage.  When conservative legislators opposed busing to desegregate schools, Young joined them.  He promptly argued that the measure did no go far enough and that all busing should be banned.  The anti-busing measure died when the legislators realized that children in the own rural districts would lose their buses too.  Such astute maneuvering is why a former senate colleague called Young "the best politician I've ever seen."
Senator Young soon reached another milestone:  He became the first black member of the Democratic National Committee.
As a state and national leader, Young fought for integration of police departments.  In Detroit, black residents viewed the nearly all-white police force as an army of occupation.  Young worked with the community leaders to change the department, fatefully laying the groundwork for his mayoral campaign a few years later.
The tensions between Detroit police and black citizens were not easily diffused.  In 1967, the situation exploded into the infamous Detroit riot - or rebellion, as Young preferred to call it.  The 1967 protests did not cause the Police Department to change its tactics with the black community.  A series of fatal shootings of black citizens by police followed.