Coleman A. Young, Detroit’s first Black mayor, will be honored with two statues: one in the U.S. Capitol in Washington and one on the riverfront in Detroit.
The first statue will go to National Statuary Hall in the Capitol. It will replace the statue of Lewis Cass, which will be moved to the Historical Society of Michigan in Lansing. The second will stand on Detroit’s east riverfront, as part of the redevelopment of the Renaissance Center.
The sculptor is Austen Brantley, a self-taught artist from Detroit. On Oct. 20, he unveiled a miniature of the statue. He says the mayor’s stance is meant to express “confidence and conviction.” The date of the unveiling is not yet known.
The project has already raised $1.2 million, including from Bedrock, the Kresge Foundation, the DTE Foundation and the Knight Foundation. The Coleman A. Young Foundation still has to raise another $3 million to $5 million for transportation, the removal of the Cass statue and the ceremonies. “It’s a big challenge,” said its director, Khary Turner.
Coleman Young was elected mayor of Detroit in 1973 and led the city for five terms, until 1994. He died in 1997.
Source: BridgeDetroit
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