Along the riverfront, many saw dilapidated buildings and warehouses.  Coleman Young saw the key to both the birth and rebirth of Detroit.  The City had started at the River in 1701, when Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac led a group of French explorers to its shores and started a fur trading post.  An avid reader of history and philosophy, Young believed Detroit could be rebuilt by starting again at the City's shores.
The riverfront is now dotted with apartment complexes, office building, marinas, public parks and an outdoor amphitheater.  And just as it happened nearly 300 years ago, Detroit's growth spreads today from the river throughout the City because of Young's vision and tenacity.

Young Made - And Wrote - History
As a national leader, Young was a past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and served on the Democratic National Committee and the National Conference of Democratic Mayors.
In 1979, Young received the prestigious Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service.  The NAACP presented Young with the coveted Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievement.  The Congressional Black Caucus honored Young with its Adam Clayton Powell Award for outstanding political leadership.  In 1993, World Book Encyclopedia began including a biographical entry on Coleman A. Young.  Only people with long-lasting impact in history are ever included in World Book.
Young's achievements also included establishing a scholarship foundation for Detroit school students.  Throughout his years in office, he declared that you were the future and that they could have a bright future in Detroit.
Young enjoyed a warm relationship with Detroiters, who reelected him four times by wide margins.  Young credited ministers with helping him to build goodwill in the community.  He occasionally could be found in pulpits, minding his vocabulary as he spoke to area congregations.

His relationship with local media was less harmonious.  Young supported a strong and independent press, but believed Detroit media often engaged in sensationalism to increase newspaper sales or TV ratings.  Young also felt the FBI encouraged negative media reports.  After Young's testimony before the anti-communism committee, the FBI spent decades and thousands - if not millions - of dollars trying to find Young guilty of something.  Despite its mammoth resources and efforts, the FBI was never able to mount a case against Young.  The FBI, like many in the media, could not accept that Young was simply an honest man.

Young, whose two marriages produced no children, became a father in his 60s.  Always a caring uncle to the young members of his extended family, Young quickly became a responsible parent to his son.  He also carried on the family tradition by naming his son for ancestors. 
Young remained active after retiring from office.  He moved into a riverfront apartment complex with a panoramic view of his beloved Detroit.  He wrote an autobiography, Hard Stuff.  He also served as a professor at Wayne State University, which has an endowed chair in urban affairs named for Young.
Young never set out to be a trailblazer or hero to the masses.  In 1977, he explained his remarkable achievements this way:
"I never looked upon myself as a do-gooder because a do-gooder is someone who - out of a sense of noblesse oblige - reaches up and pulls some poor benighted (man) and does good for him.  What I've done ... serves to validate my own personal sense of worth and dignity.  You know, as a black person, as a poor person, as a person of working class origin.  I think people of these characteristics have been kicked around.  I was determined to do something about it."
Coleman Alexander Young died after a long battle with emphysema Saturday, November 29, 1997 with family and friends at his bedside.  He was 79 years old.
He is survived by his son, Coleman Young Jr.; sisters Bernice Grier and Juanita Clark; sisters-in-law Elizabeth Young and Muriel Young; cousins Dr. Claud Young, Carl Young, and Esther Walker; a host of nieces, a nephew, great-nieces, a great-nephew, a great, great-nephew, and his companion, Barbara Parker.

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