5 Years Later -- Detroit Blacks Vote Majority

5 Years Later

Detroit Blacks Vote Majority

"Things were kind of gloomy around here this morning," said a STRESS officer the day after Coleman Young's election as Detroit's first black mayor.

It was a close race. State Senator Coleman Young, a former cab driver and union agitator who once was called to testify before Joe McCarthy, is Detroit's new mayor. He narrowly defeated John Nichols, Detroit's ex-Police Commissioner and STRESS supporter, who is known as "Black-Jack John" for his treatment of prisoners.

Last minute returns from predominantly black precincts put Young into the mayor's chair in a race that polarized Detroit. Ninety per cent of Young's votes were black and 90% of Nichols' were white.

Nichols had run on a law and order campaign, declaring only he could reduce Detroit's crime rate, even though his term as Detroit's Police Commissioner was most notable for the increase of civilian deaths by the decoy STRESS squads, not with a decrease in crime. Coming up through the ranks from patrolman to commissioner, Nichols was fired by Detroit's Mayor Gribbs right after he won the primary, when possible police interference in the campaign became an issue. Upon learning he had been canned, Nichols reportedly stormed out of Gribbs office, accusing the mayor of jeopardizing Detroit's law enforcement.

Coleman Young, supporter of abortion reform, consumer protection legislation, tenants' rights and marijuana decriminalization while in the State Senate. pledged to abolish STRESS, put more blacks on the police force and abolish the police corruption that permits heroin traffic to flourish in the Motor City.

Called a communist by his right-wing opponents and known for his leftist leanings in Lansing, Young told an interviewer from TRIBE magazine, "I believe that the post office as well as the telephone, electric and gas companies should be owned by the people. They ain't got no damn competition now; if that's socialism, so be it."

But in the tradition of electoral politics, Young's stands moved to the right during the campaign, as Nichols constantly raised phoney law and order issues. "Criminals will be arrested and prosecuted vigorously, without mercy," Nichols noted.

Young does speak to the real issue, which is the economic deprivation of Detroit's poor: "Poor white Detroiters, poor Latino Detroiters have been in a depression for several years," he told one audience. One of his most difficult problems will be keeping industry and jobs in Detroit as whites continue to flee to the suburbs. Gribbs' and Henry Ford's plan for the redevelopment of Detroit is the multi-million dollar Renaissance Project, which would replace the burned-out remains of the '67 riots with a riverfront ruling-class enclave.

Coleman Young's victory marks a turning point in Detroit's history as the black voters outnumbered whites. "It's too bad that this victory should be along racial lines," Young said. He is not a separatist, having once led a walkout of Michigan's 245-member delegation from the national Black Political Convention during the vote on a constitution he described as "basically a separatist document." Young says his administration will not be black-dominated and that he is appointing members of both races to administrative posts.

He is reportedly considering keeping on Philip Tannian, Gribbs' recent appointee (and an ex-FBI agent) as Police Commissioner for at least the next six months.

The closing days of the campaign saw an anti-Young smear campaign mounted in sections of Detroit where a key white crossover vote was possible. Twenty-five thousand copies of a newspaper article accusing Young of being a communist were mailed and distributed as similar phone calls were made to avowed Young supporters. The Wayne County American Independent Party distributed 50,000 leaflets echoing those charges. None other than Gregory I. Donovon, Nichols' campaign treasurer, was forced to resign after he was revealed as the buyer of an ad in the Detroit News calling Young a commie.

Young will take office with a liberal majority on Common Council and a new city charter that includes a civilian review board of the police.

Called the People's Charter, the new document was drafted over a period of three years by an elected body of nine people who consulted with Detroiters through public hearings. Taking effect next July 1st, it calls for a five-person Civilian Review Board of the Police to set policy for the police department. Its members would be appointed by the mayor. The police commissioner, also appointed by the mayor, would assume merely an administrative role. As an extra check on the police, the board could hire its own independent investigator (akin to the Watergate Special Prosecuter), to investigate any complaints.

The other important charter innovation is the creation of an ombudsman, appointed by two-thirds of council to a ten-year term and empowered to investigate any city department. This person would supposedly be immune to political pressure.

Often beginning speeches with "brothers and sisters," Coleman Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, into a family that migrated north with thousands of others after World War I. He's been involved in innumerable union organizing attempts, walking picket lines, joining sit-down strikes and has been fired for such activity time and time again.

During his years in the air force he led a protest against segregation of the officers' club, was stockaded and eventually released to victoriously attend the newly integrated club.

Most people don't realize it, but Young has also been an advocate of the legalization of marijuana since the 1950's. He supported John Sinclair's release on appeal bond after he was sentenced to 9 1/2-10 years for giving away two joints; he was also a prominent supporter of the Michigan Marijuana Initiative.

Up until now, Young has been concentrating on winning the election, courting Detroit business and labor leaders who decided that Nichols was too unstable and unreliable for them to handle. But with the new city charter and the increased power it gives the mayor over the police, Young could make some changes that might surprise even his campaign supporters.

However, it takes more than just the election of a Black Mayor to change the economic conditions in a city like Detroit. Coleman Young may be the Motor City's executive officer, but the Ford's are still behind the wheel.