Coleman A. Young’s Grave

Detroit’s most consequential modern mayor rests here. Coleman A. Young — a Tuskegee Airman and a fearless labor and civil-rights organizer who once told the House Un-American Activities Committee exactly where to go — became the city’s first Black mayor in 1974 and held the office for an unprecedented five terms. He integrated a police department that had terrorized Black Detroit, fought for the city through its hardest decades, and left his fingerprints on the skyline, from the Renaissance Center to the riverfront.

Blunt, brilliant, and endlessly quotable, Young was as polarizing as he was beloved — its own kind of Detroit legacy. He rests at Elmwood among the city’s founders and freedom fighters, fitting company. On our list.