Wayne State University Press Main PageWSU Press Main Page Wayne State University Press Wayne State University Main PageWayne State University Main Page
Africana StudiesAfricana Studies
Art and Art History
Classical StudiesFilm and Television Studies
Great Lakes Books Series / Regional InterestJournalsJewish Studies
Labor Studies and Urban Studies
Literature, Literary Theory, German Literary and Cultural Studies, Humor StudiesSpeech & Language Pathology

About WSU PressContact WSU Press
Frequently Asked Questions
 Book Information About the book Reviews
Coleman Young and Detroit Politics
From Social Activist to Power Broker

Wilbur C. Rich
 		Coleman Young (1919-1997), elected Detroit's first black mayor in 1973, was the city's longest-serving chief executive. Contentious and contradictory, he was, nonetheless, a savvy and convincing politician. Wilbur C. Rich delivers the first serious biography of this powerful and fascinating political figure.
Abandoned by many labor-organizing colleagues during the Red Scare of the 1950s, Young rescued himself from the purgatory of McCarthyism to become a major power broker in Michigan politics and in the National Democratic Party.
Rich combines biography with political analysis. He outlines the basic strategy underlying Young's approach to policy making and traces the economic changes in the city before and after Young's rise to power. Rich challenges conventional wisdom on the limits of mayoral power and examines Young's role in three key policy areas: affirmative action, economic redevelopment, and the city's fiscal crises. 		"The first book-length biography of Mayor Coleman Young is a detached, scholarly look at the combative, stylish, tart-tongued boss who ruled one of America's most rambunctious cities."
— Bill McGraw, Detroit Free Press

"Of the several political biographies of black mayors to arise in recent years, this is by far the most significant, not only because it covers a highly controversial and unique political figure, Coleman Young, but also because of the way it is conceptualized and methodically structured."
—National Political Science Review
African American Life Series

$39.95s cloth / ISBN 0-8143-2093-7
$22.95s paper / ISBN 0-8143-2094-5

304 pages / 33 illustrations

1998 (1988)