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{{Short description|Mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993}}
]
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = David Dinkins
|image = David Dinkins 1986 cropped.jpg
|caption = Dinkins in 1986
|office = 106th ]
|term_start = January 1, 1990
|term_end = December 31, 1993
|predecessor = ]
|successor = ]
|office1 = 23rd ] of ]
|term_start1 = January 1, 1986
|term_end1 = December 31, 1989
|predecessor1 = ]
|successor1 = ]
|office2 = Member of the ]<br />from the 78th district
|term_start2 = January 1, 1966
|term_end2 = December 31, 1966
|predecessor2 = Constituency established
|successor2 = ]
|birth_name = David Norman Dinkins
|birth_date = {{birth date|1927|7|10}}
|birth_place = ], U.S.
|death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|2020|11|23|1927|7|10}}}}
|death_place = New York City, U.S.
|party = ]
|otherparty = ]
|spouse = {{marriage|]|1953|October 11, 2020|end=d.}}
|children = 2
|education = ] (])<br />] (])
|allegiance = {{flag|United States}}
|branch = {{flag|United States Marine Corps}}
|serviceyears = 1945–1946
}}
'''David Norman Dinkins''' (July 10, 1927&nbsp;– November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th ] from 1990 to 1993.


Dinkins was among the more than 20,000 ], the first African-American ], from 1945 to 1946.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.uncw.edu/web/montford/transcripts/Dinkins_David.html|title=Transcript of Interview with Dinkins, David|first=David|last=Dinkins|date=July 21, 2005|website=library.uncw.edu}}</ref> He graduated '']'' from ] and received his law degree from ] in 1956. A longtime member of ]'s Carver ] Club, Dinkins began his electoral career by serving in the ] in 1966, eventually advancing to Manhattan ].<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053220/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/08/nyregion/dinkins-seriously-considers-entering-the-race-for-mayor.html |date=November 24, 2020}} Lynn, Frank, '']'', December 8, 1988.</ref> He won the ], becoming the ] ] to hold the office. After losing re-election ], Dinkins joined the faculty of ] while remaining active in municipal politics.
'''David Norman Dinkins''' (born ], ] in ]) was the ] from ] through ] and was the first ] to be mayor of ].


==Early life and education==
== Biography ==
Dinkins was born in ], to Sarah "Sally" Lucy Dinkins, a domestic worker, and William Harvey Dinkins Jr., a barber and real estate agent.<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com">Dinkins, David N.; Knobler, Peter (2013). ''A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic''. New York: ]. {{ISBN|978-1-61039-301-0}}.</ref><ref name=":0" /> His parents separated when he was six years old, after which he was raised by his father.<ref name=":0">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/20/nyregion/william-dinkins-mayor-s-father-and-real-estate-agent-dies-at-85.html | work=The New York Times | first=John T. | last=McQuiston | title=William Dinkins, Mayor's Father And Real Estate Agent, Dies at 85 | date=October 20, 1991 | access-date=February 7, 2017 | archive-date=November 24, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053221/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/20/nyregion/william-dinkins-mayor-s-father-and-real-estate-agent-dies-at-85.html | url-status=live}}</ref> Dinkins moved to Harlem as a child before returning to Trenton. He attended ], where he graduated in 1945.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.trentonian.com/news/trenton-makes-heaven-takes-david-dinkins-dies-at-93/article_367da6f6-2ea7-11eb-b9b3-1f90de0fc628.amp.html | work=The Trentonian | first=Sulaiman | last=Abdur-Rahman | title=Legendary city native David Dinkins dies at 93 | date=November 24, 2020 | access-date=November 25, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>
After defeating incumbent Mayor Edward I. Koch in New York's 1989 Democratic mayoral primary, David Dinkins (born 1927) went on in November to defeat Rudolph Giuliani and become the first African American mayor of New York City.
Calm, elegant, deliberate, and dignified, David N. Dinkins overcame the suspicions of many white New Yorkers that he lacked leadership qualifications and in November of 1989 was elected the first black mayor of the United States' largest city. After announcing his candidacy in February, Dinkins became the beneficiary of a changing public attitude, one exhausted with racial strife and adjustments caused by a constricting economy. Drawing heavily on his political stronghold in Harlem, the career politician and lifelong Democrat defeated incumbent Mayor Edward I. Koch in September. In the general election he was victorious over a political neophyte, the popular district attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani. Once in office, Dinkins faced the intimidating task of healing a city suffering from fiscal and racial hemorrhaging. The results have received mixed reviews, with supporters praising Dinkins for calming a populace that threatened to explode more than once, and detractors arguing that he has acted timidly at a time when the city was crying out for forceful leadership.
Celestine Bohlen expressed in the New York Times: "David Dinkins comes to the office of mayor after three decades of loyal, quiet service to the Democratic party--making him a man who is a groundbreaker and very much bound by tradition. In a race against two high-profile opponents, Mr. Dinkins was the candidate of moderation, a middle-of-the-road choice for a city that seemed eager to lower its own decibel level. His strategy was to soothe, not excite--and it worked."
Perceiving that the city he likes to call "our town" was ready for a candidate that would "take the high road," Dinkins led a campaign that was notable less for what he said than the way he said it. His English was formal and almost stilted, delivered in a calm baritone laden with "one oughts" and "pray tells." He did not raise his voice and unlike many politicians, spoke the same language at a breakfast meeting on Wall Street as he did at a street rally in Bensonhurst, a volatile area of the city. He fared well in comparison to Koch, known for his divisive politicking, and Giuliani, who transferred his prosecutorial style to the campaign trail.
Dinkins has been called a man of deep convictions by his admirers, although few concrete programs can be linked to those convictions. Others have called him a political Bill Cosby: "Dinkins projects the kind of personality that's not threatening to whites and is acceptable to blacks," Representative Floyd H. Flake, a black Democrat from Queens, told the New York Times. Yet throughout his career he has received only marginal support from black political groups or voters outside his Harlem base, losing as many elections as he has won. The "rap" against him cites his inadequate support for minority issues.


Upon graduating, Dinkins attempted to enlist in the ] but was told that a ] had been filled. After traveling the Northeastern United States, he finally found a recruiting station that had not, in his words, "filled their quota for Negro Marines"; however, ] was over before Dinkins finished ].<ref name="The Takeaway">{{cite web |url=http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/218898-first-black-marines-awarded-congressional-gold-medal |title=First Black Marines Awarded Congressional Gold Medal |first=John |last=Hockenberry |author-link=John Hockenberry |date=June 27, 2012 |work=] |access-date=July 29, 2015 |archive-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105224410/http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/218898-first-black-marines-awarded-congressional-gold-medal/ |url-status=live}}</ref> He served in the Marine Corps from July 1945 through August 1946, attaining the rank of ].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/28/nyregion/to-run-or-not-to-run-dinkins-s-struggle.html|title=To Run or Not to Run: Dinkins's Struggle|first=Michel|last=Marriott|newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 28, 1988|access-date=December 20, 2017|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053232/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/28/nyregion/to-run-or-not-to-run-dinkins-s-struggle.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wlib.com/onair/DavidDinkins.aspx |title=David Dinkins Biography&nbsp;– 1190 WLIB&nbsp;– Your Praise & Inspiration Station |publisher=Wlib.com |access-date=September 23, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202185939/http://www.wlib.com/onair/DavidDinkins.aspx |archive-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref><ref name=Ebony>Cheers, D. Michael. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053221/http://findarticles.com/?noadc=1 |date=November 24, 2020}}, '']'', February 1990. Accessed September 4, 2008.</ref> Dinkins was among the ] who received the ] from the United States Senate and House of Representatives.<ref name="The Takeaway" />
== Emerged as a Peacemaker ==
By most accounts his finest moments in the campaign involved calming the city when it seemed on the brink of racial schism. A young white woman had been raped and brutalized by black youths in Central Park, and a black teenager had been murdered in a white ethnic Brooklyn neighborhood. In the polarized atmosphere of the summer of 1989, Dinkins emerged as a peacemaker. His image as an avuncular, deliberative leader seemed a welcome balm to New Yorkers. To appear cool and unflappable in the summer heat, Dinkins had his aides carry three or four identical linen suits, allowing for quick changes.
In Bensonhurst, where black community leaders had organized a march to protest the killing of Yusef Hawkins in August, Dinkins faced an angry crowd that booed his arrival. He managed to quiet the boos and obtain his audience's respect. According to an account by Todd Purdum in the New York Times, he approached it this way: "Let's be clear on something. There's no need for you to agree with me. You have every right to prefer someone else. But understand this also. There will come a November 7 and then there'll be a November 8, and the people will have spoken. And after they've spoken, I'm equally confident that you're going to obey and abide by that judgment."
Such moments of eloquence were rare for Dinkins. Even his supporters joked about his wooden speaking style. On the eve of the general election, in a televised candidate's debate, he was given 60 seconds to explain why he should be mayor. To do this he needed to read aloud from a prepared text. For months on the campaign trail, reporters' eyes would glaze over when he repeated, for the umpteenth time, his vision of the city's ethnic diversity as "a gorgeous mosaic." He deviated little from his script.
Dinkins's two main campaign hurdles were civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his own personal finances. Dinkins's association with Jackson, whose private pronouncement of New York as "Hymietown" still infuriated many, limited Dinkins's support among Jewish voters. The mayoral candidate's campaign strategists, however, were able to convince a plurality of Jewish voters that Dinkins was his own man and solidly within the Democratic party tradition.
A second obstacle was the integrity issue. Dinkins paid no income taxes from 1969 through 1972, although he later paid back taxes in full with interest. He referred to the omission as an oversight. He also came under a cloud for his perceived unethical handling of his stock portfolio; he had transferred ownership to his son and substantially underreported its cash worth. Dinkins spent much time in the latter part of the campaign addressing those issues, often with visible reluctance and resentment.


Dinkins graduated '']'' from ]<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" /> with a ] in mathematics in 1950. He received his ] from ] in 1956.<ref name=Ebony /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/profile/100017951484 |title=Marquis Biographies Online |access-date=September 11, 2020 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053223/http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/logon |url-status=live}}</ref>
== Attended Howard University ==
Dinkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1927. His family had come from the South the previous year after pulling up roots in Newport News, Virginia. During Dinkins's early childhood, his parents separated, and he and his younger sister went with their mother to start a new life in Harlem. He returned to Trenton to attend high school, then went on to Howard University. His studies were interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the United States Marine Corps. "Dink" was recalled by classmates as a fine student; media interviews with those classmates depict a young man with strong social skills, popular with one and all, and involved in a fraternity. It was at Howard that Dinkins met Joyce Burrows, a campus queen of a rival fraternity. The two eventually became engaged.
While strongly involved in social life at Howard--a primarily black college in Washington, D.C.--as an undergraduate, Dinkins occasionally ventured off campus to see movies in the Washington area. The capital was very much a segregated city at that time. An inveterate movie buff, Dinkins would don a turban and fake a foreign accent in order to enter movie theaters off limits to blacks. The episodes apparently did not stir any racial bitterness in the young man.
Soon after graduation Dinkins married his fiance in an Episcopalian church in Harlem, where the couple then set up housekeeping. Mrs. Dinkins had grown up in a very political family--her father was Daniel Burrows, former assemblyman and district leader--and provided strong encouragement for the young man to consider a political career. In 1953 Dinkins enrolled at Brooklyn Law School, entertaining the possibility of launching a political career. The young family soon moved to a state-subsidized, middle-class housing project in Harlem, where they raised two children.
Dinkins eventually complied with the wishes of his wife's parents. Introduced to J. Raymond Jones, the so-called "Harlem Fox," Dinkins became a cog in the powerful Harlem political machine, the Carver Club. The organization trained generations of young black business and political leaders and was well entrenched within the city's power structure. Dinkins took on the grunt work that is part of every campaign, awakening at dawn to hang posters at Harlem subway stops. He worked long and hard without complaint, and his dedication was duly noted. Within the Carver Club, racial rhetoric was rare, congeniality the byword. Dinkins mixed easily with politicos from all walks of life. Among his peers and cronies were Basil Paterson, Charles Rangel, and Percy Sutton, all of whom were to emerge as three of the city's most powerful black politicians. As Dinkins grew older and took on more responsibility, his associations came to include a number of the city's movers and shakers. He played tennis with them at the River Club, visited their estates in South Hampton, and vacationed in Europe at their expense.
None of this endeared Dinkins to black community leaders or younger, more activist voters. Yet as the momentum of his campaign grew, and it became clear he had a very real chance to become the city's first black mayor, misgivings gave way to racial pride. Blacks sporting "Dinkins" buttons on their lapels began turning up all over town. When his chauffeured car pulled into a black neighborhood, the excitement became palpable. A Newsday editorial writer asked Dinkins whether he feared his image was that of an Uncle Tom. He answered, "Au contraire. What I do is provide hope."


==Political career==
== Elected Manhattan Borough President ==
=== Early and middle career ===
In 1965 Dinkins ran for his first elective office, representing his district in the New York State Assembly, and won. At the end of his two-year term, however, his district was redrawn, and he chose not to run again. He bided his time handling local political tasks. When Mayor Abraham Beame offered him a post in his administration as deputy mayor, Dinkins accepted--then withdrew in the midst of a media hoopla over his unpaid taxes. Dinkins paid his taxes and, still very much in the party's good graces, was hastily appointed city clerk. His responsibilities mainly involved signing marriage certificates; his salary was $71,000.
While maintaining a private law practice from 1956 to 1975, Dinkins rose through the Democratic Party organization in Harlem, beginning at the Carver Democratic Club under the aegis of ].<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" /><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053222/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/11/obituaries/j-raymond-jones-harlem-kingmaker-dies-at-91.html |date=November 24, 2020}} Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', June 11, 1991.</ref> He became part of an influential group of African American politicians that included ], ], ], and ]; the latter three together with Dinkins were known as the "]".<ref>Schapiro, Rich, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053257/https://www.nydailynews.com/news/harlem-trailblazer-world-war-ii-tuskegee-airmen-percy-sutton-dies-article-1.435731 |date=November 24, 2020}} Airmen Percy Sutton dies", '']'', December 27, 2009.</ref> As an investor, Dinkins was one of fifty African American investors who helped Sutton found ] in 1971.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.precinctreporter.com/2020/11/24/david-dinkins-new-yorks-first-and-only-black-mayor-dies-at-93/|title=David Dinkins, New York's First and Only Black Mayor, Dies at 93|access-date=November 25, 2020|archive-date=December 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228185633/https://www.precinctreporter.com/2020/11/24/david-dinkins-new-yorks-first-and-only-black-mayor-dies-at-93/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1977 Percy Sutton resigned as Manhattan borough president and anointed Dinkins to run for the office. Dinkins did, but lost by a wide margin. Four years later he ran again, losing once more in a landslide. In 1985 he vied a third time and was elected. The post he took over included a staff of more than 100 and an annual budget of nearly $5 million. As borough president, Dinkins did little to upset the apple cart. He put together task forces on a range of urban issues, from pedestrian safety to school decentralization. Perhaps his strongest stance was in support of community-based AIDS services.
Neil Barsky wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "By most accounts he made little of the post, and was best known among city politicians for his problems making up his mind" on budget and land-use matters. Dinkins earned a reputation as a procrastinator, withholding his opinion or his vote until he could hold lengthy, detailed briefings with aides and consultants. To the public he was deliberate, cool-headed, and rather vague, as evidenced by an answer given to New York Times reporter Todd Purdum in response to a question on streamlining the city's bureaucracy: "I cannot now set forth a specific blueprint and guarantee that we can do everything in one stop. All I'm saying is there must exist the ingenuity among us if we start off with the assumption that it's a desirable goal."


Dinkins briefly represented the 78th District of the ] in ]. From 1972 to 1973, he was president of the ]. In late 1973, he was poised to take office as New York City's first Black ] in the administration of Mayor-elect ]; however, the appointment was not effectuated amid "difficulties that stemmed from failure to pay federal, state or city personal income taxes for four years."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/29/archives/dinkins-pulls-out-as-aide-to-beame-failed-to-pay-tax-deputymayor.html | title=Dinkins Pulls Out as Aide to Beame; Failed to Pay Tax | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 29, 1973 | last1=Schumach | first1=Murray }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/david-n-dinkins-the-first-black-mayor-of-new-york-city-dead-at-93/article_960f59c4-2ebc-11eb-b5a2-1baf28b3d93a.html|title=David N. Dinkins, the first Black mayor of New York City, dead at 93|last1=Boyd |first1=Herb |last2=Arinde |first2=Nayaba |website=St. Louis American|date=November 24, 2020 }}</ref> Instead, he served as city clerk (characterized by ] as a "patronage appointee who kept marriage licenses and municipal records") from 1975 to 1985.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/nyregion/david-dinkins-dead.html|title=David N. Dinkins, New York's First Black Mayor, Dies at 93|first=Robert D.|last=McFadden|newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 24, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/mayors.html#dinkins |title=NYC 100&nbsp;– NYC Mayors&nbsp;– The First 100 Years |publisher=Nyc.gov |access-date=September 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012003808/http://nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/mayors.html#dinkins |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He was elected ] ] in 1985 on his third run for that office. ], Dinkins was elected mayor of New York City, defeating three-term incumbent mayor ] and two others in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee ] in the general election. During his campaign, Dinkins sought the blessing and endorsement of Rabbi ], the ] Rebbe.<ref>Ehrlich, M. Avrum, ''The Messiah of Brooklyn: Understanding Lubavitch Hasidim Past and Present'' (KTAV Publishing, January 2005), p. 109. {{ISBN|0-88125-836-9}}</ref>
== Shattering of the "Gorgeous Mosaic" ==
Early in his tenure, Dinkins experienced firsthand the glaring difference between a candidate who can promise the sky and an office-holder who cannot, to the dismay of some constituents, deliver all things to all people. The city Dinkins inherited, in the eyes of many political pundits, was looking more ungovernable with each passing day, presenting a string of concrete challenges to the idealism that had drawn the electorate to him during the campaign. The budget deficit was running at $1.8 billion, a national recession was robbing the city of jobs and cutting revenues, and crime continued to claim victims in cases that made the national news and further enhanced the image of New York as an archetype of urban decay.
In addition, it was by no means helpful that at a time when New Yorkers were in need of greater government services, federal aid to cities across the country had been given the budgetary ax. After being criticized for initially wavering on New York finances, Dinkins bit the bullet, avoiding deficit spending by cutting the city's work force and dramatically scaling back health, education, housing, and other social programs. These moves, while praised as fiscally prudent, had a political cost. Some claimed Dinkins hadn't done enough, particularly with the downsizing of government, and others maintained he had alienated those constituents in the labor and African American communities who had been among his most strident supporters. "I sort of get it from both sides," Dinkins was quoted as saying in Emerge. "You can't make political judgments about actions you take. You really need to make a judgment that's consistent with the correct thing to do and what's good for all people. When it comes to `my constituency' so-called--I frankly see everyone as my constituency."
In addition to facing attacks on his financial handling of the city, Dinkins began to see the further shattering of his beloved "gorgeous mosaic." In 1991 violent protests erupted after a car in the entourage of a Brooklyn Jewish leader struck and killed a black youth in Queens. Dinkins appealed to both sides to follow the light of reason rather than cave in to emotion, stereotypes, and hate and was credited with having brokered a peace, albeit a fragile one.
A more rigorous test of his healing powers was delivered in 1992, when riots ravaged cities throughout the country in the wake of the not guilty verdict in the controversial Rodney King case, which involved the question of brutality inflicted by white police officers on a black citizen. Visiting neighborhoods most vulnerable to violent explosion, Dinkins again succeeded in deactivating a racial time bomb and earned, at least temporarily, a respite from his critics. "This was defining moment for him," state Democratic Chairman John A. Marino was quoted as saying in the New York Times. "He showed why he was elected, in a sense. I'm hearing a lot of good things about David N. Dinkins from people who a few weeks ago didn't have anything good to say about him."
Dinkins continued to have good luck in 1992, as the city prepared for the lucrative Democratic National Convention--a feather in the mayor's political cap. An unexpected budget surplus was discovered, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled in May that the mayor had not violated federal tax rules in the 1986 stock transaction with his son. A July 2, 1992, poll indicated New Yorkers had a 41 percent favorable opinion of him, not the number of a universally loved politician, but 12 points higher than it had been in March.
Dinkins has learned, however, that luck is as fleeting in politics as it is in other fields, perhaps more so. As the 1993 election approached, Dinkins was facing a steady stream of criticism that he has hired incompetent workers to top municipal posts, that he acts reactively rather than proactively, and that, while displaying a talent for pacifying, he lacks the consistently strong leadership and stalwart vision that the city's multifaceted problems demand.
Still, Dinkins continued trumpeting the populist, idealistic themes that carried him through the 1989 election and that he hoped would serve him well in 1993, when he faced challenges from Giuliani and George Marlin, Conservative and Right to Life Parties. "I came into government hearing the voices of those in need, and I will never stop listening," the New York Times quoted the mayor as saying in his 1992 state-of-the-city speech. "There is more hope in this city than there are street corners." Nonetheless, Giuliani defeated him by a narrow margin and Dinkins became the first black mayor of a major American city who was not reelected to office.


Dinkins was elected in the wake of a corruption scandal that stemmed from the decline of longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman and preeminent New York City political leader ]'s ]-influenced patronage network, ultimately precipitating the suicide of Queens Borough President ] and a series of criminal convictions among the city's Democratic leadership. In March 1989, the ] (which served as the primary governing instrument of various patronage networks for decades, often superseding the mayoralty in influence) also was declared unconstitutional under the ]'s ] by the ]; this prompted the empanelment of the ], which abolished the Board of Estimate and assigned most of its responsibilities to an enlarged ] via a successful referendum in November. Koch, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was politically damaged by his administration's ties to the Esposito network and his handling of racial issues, exemplified by his fealty to affluent interests in predominantly white areas of Manhattan. This enabled Dinkins to attenuate public perceptions of his previous patronage appointments and emerge as a formidable, reform-minded challenger to Koch.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_A1GDIGAyTQC&q=mayor+koch+scandal+mayoral+election+1989&pg=PA237 |title=New York City: A Short History |pages=237–238, paragraph 3 |first=George J. |last=Lankevich |year=2002 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=9780814751862 |access-date=September 23, 2011 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053235/https://books.google.com/books?id=_A1GDIGAyTQC&q=mayor+koch+scandal+mayoral+election+1989&pg=PA237 |url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, the fact that Dinkins was African American helped him to avoid criticism that he was ignoring the Black vote by campaigning to whites.<ref>Thompson, J. Phillip, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053323/https://www.jstor.org/stable/420053 |date=November 24, 2020}}, ''Political Science & Politics'', June 1990.</ref> While a large turnout of African American voters was important to his election, Dinkins campaigned throughout the city.<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" /> Dinkins' campaign manager was political consultant ], who became one of his first deputy mayors.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/political-consultant-william-lynch-jr-dies-72-article-1.1423018|work=New York Daily News|title=Political consultant William Lynch Jr. dies at 72|first=Celeste|last=Katz|access-date=November 23, 2020|date=August 9, 2013|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053259/https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/political-consultant-william-lynch-jr-dies-72-article-1.1423018|url-status=live}}</ref>
== External link==


===Mayoralty===
*
====Crime====
], Secretary of Defense ]; Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff ], and General ]]]
Dinkins entered office in January 1990 pledging racial healing, and famously referred to New York City's demographic diversity as "not a melting pot, but a gorgeous mosaic".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/02/nyregion/mayor-dinkins-dinkins-sworn-in-stresses-aid-to-youth.html |title=Mayor Dinkins; Dinkins Sworn In; Stresses Aid to Youth |access-date=August 13, 2010 |author=Purdum, Todd S. |author-link=Todd S. Purdum |date=January 2, 1990 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053254/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/02/nyregion/mayor-dinkins-dinkins-sworn-in-stresses-aid-to-youth.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The crime rate in New York City had risen alarmingly during the 1980s, and the rate of homicide in particular reached an all-time high of 2,245 cases during 1990, the first year of the Dinkins administration.<ref>The Power of the Mayor, Chris McNickle, p. 355</ref> The rates of most crimes, including all categories of violent crime, then declined during the remainder of his four-year term. That ended a 30-year upward spiral and initiated a trend of falling rates that continued and accelerated beyond his term.<ref>Dinkins, David N.; Knobler, Peter (2013). ''A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic''. New York: PublicAffairs. {{ISBN|978-1-61039-301-0}}. Riggio, Len, Foreword, p. xi.</ref><ref name="Langan">{{cite book |url=https://ebiblio.istat.it/digibib/Essays/IST0000120EssaysN19_2009.pdf |title=Towards a Safer Society: The Knowledge Contribution of Statistical Information |editor1=Linda Laura Sabbadini |editor2=Maria Giuseppina Muratore |editor3=Giovanna Tagliacozzo |publication-date=2009 |publisher=Istituto Nazionale di Statistica |location=Rome |isbn=978-88-458-1640-6 |chapter=The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City |first=Patrick A. |last=Langan |author2=Matthew R. Durose |pages=131–174 |date=December 2003 |access-date=May 7, 2018 |quote=According to ] statistical analysis, crime in New York City took a downturn starting around 1990 that continued for many years, shattering all the city's old records for consecutive-year declines in crime rates. |archive-date=May 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507085422/https://ebiblio.istat.it/digibib/Essays/IST0000120EssaysN19_2009.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> However, the high absolute levels, the peak early in his administration, and the only modest decline subsequently (] down 12% from 1990 to 1993)<ref>The Power of the Mayor, Chris McNickle, p. 356</ref> resulted in Dinkins' suffering politically from the perception that crime remained out of control on his watch.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/91.barrett.shtml |title=Giuliani's Legacy: Taking Credit For Things He Didn't Do |access-date=November 15, 2007 |author=Barrett, Wayne |author-link=Wayne Barrett |date=June 25, 2001 |work=] |archive-date=October 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018131253/http://gothamgazette.com/commentary/91.barrett.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=NYT01>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/nyregion/26dinkins.html |title=Another Look at the Dinkins Administration, and Not by Giuliani |date=October 25, 2009 |first=Michael |last=Powell |work=The New York Times |access-date=October 26, 2009 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053255/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/nyregion/26dinkins.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Dinkins in fact initiated a hiring program that expanded the police department nearly 25%. '']'' reported, "He obtained the State Legislature's permission to dedicate a tax to hire thousands of police officers, and he fought to preserve a portion of that anticrime money to keep schools open into the evening, an award-winning initiative that kept tens of thousands of teenagers off the street."<ref name=NYT01 /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E1DE1E31F934A3575BC0A962958260 |title=As Police Force Adds to Ranks, Some Promises Still Unfulfilled |access-date=November 15, 2007 |first=Sam |last=Roberts |date=August 7, 1994 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053324/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/07/nyregion/as-police-force-adds-to-ranks-some-promises-still-unfulfilled.html |url-status=live}}</ref>


Dinkins' term was marked by a greater push toward accountability and oversight regarding police misconduct, which led to friction between Dinkins and the city's ]. In 1992, Dinkins proposed a bill to change the leadership of the ] (CCRB), the oversight body that examined complaints of police misconduct, from half-cop–half-civilian to all civilian and make it independent of the New York Police Department.<ref name="forgotten">{{cite magazine |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/10/the-forgotten-city-hall-riot.html |title=White Riot In 1992, thousands of furious, drunken cops descended on City Hall – the Queen's visit and changed New York history |author=Nahmias, Laura |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 4, 2021 |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref> Following the ], fueled by the beating of Jose "Kiko" Garcia, an undocumented ] immigrant, by a police officer, Dinkins attempted to defuse tensions by inviting Garcia's family to ]. This gesture outraged the city's PBA, who claimed Dinkins's actions showed favoritism toward Garcia and bias against the police.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/11/nyregion/washington-heights-case-washington-heights-dinkins-defends-actions-after.html |title=The Washington Heights Case; In Washington Heights, Dinkins Defends Actions After Shooting |author=Finder, Alan |work=The New York Times |date=September 11, 1992 |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref> To condemn Dinkins' position on policing, the city PBA organized a ], which quickly turned violent when nearly 4,000 off-duty police officers blocked traffic on the ] and knocked over police barricades in an attempt to rush ].<ref name="Wisc">{{Cite web|last=Oliver|first=Pamela|title=When the NYPD Rioted – Race, Politics, Justice|date=July 18, 2020 |url=https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/racepoliticsjustice/2020/07/18/when-the-nypd-rioted/|access-date=2021-01-15|language=en-US}}</ref> The nearly 300 uniformed on-duty officers did little to control the riot.<ref name="Slate">{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/12/nypd_killings_new_york_city_s_largest_police_union_thinks_it_s_under_attack.html|title=Déjà Blue|last=Voorhees|first=Josh|date=2014-12-22|newspaper=Slate|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339|access-date=2016-11-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Manegold|first=Catherine S.|date=1992-09-27|title=Rally Puts Police Under New Scrutiny|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/27/nyregion/rally-puts-police-under-new-scrutiny.html|access-date=2020-06-09|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="target">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/17/nyregion/officers-rally-and-dinkins-is-their-target.html|title=Officers Rally And Dinkins Is Their Target|last=Mckinley|first=James C. Jr.|date=1992-09-17|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-11-29}}</ref> Despite the riot and objections from the PBA, the CCRB was reorganized and made independent from the police department in July 1993.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Shielded from Justice: New York: Civilian Complaint Review Board|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/police/uspo1015.htm|access-date=2021-01-15|website=www.hrw.org}}</ref>


====Dealmaking====
Dinkins was rebuffed in his attempt to end the ].<ref>Rebuffed by NYC City Council via a technicality {{Cite news | newspaper=] | title=Dave gives some business license to skip license | quote=the Council's Consumer Affairs Committee failed to muster a quorum | author=David Seifman | date=July 3, 1992 | page=8}}</ref><ref>New York City and Miami have their own licensing laws. {{cite web | url=https://reedbrotherssecurity.com/states-with-locksmith-laws | title=States with Locksmith Laws | date=February 7, 2018}}</ref>


During his final days in office, Dinkins made last-minute negotiations with the sanitation workers, presumably to preserve the public status of garbage removal. Giuliani, who had defeated Dinkins in the 1993 mayoral race, blamed Dinkins for a "cheap political trick" when Dinkins planned the resignation of ], Dinkins' appointee on the board of education, thus guaranteeing Gotbaum's replacement six months in office.<ref>], ''The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life'' (San Francisco: ], 2005), p. 90.</ref> Dinkins also signed a last-minute 99-year lease with the ]. By negotiating a fee for New York City based on the event's gross income, the Dinkins administration made a deal with the ] that brings more economic benefit to the City of New York each year than the ], ], ], and ] combined.<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" /> The city's revenue-producing events ], ], and ] were all created under Dinkins.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=New York Lifestyles Magazine|title=David Dinkins! New York Now and Then|url=https://newyorklifestylesmagazine.com/archives/01_16/articles/dinkins.html|last=Nesoff|first=Bob|access-date=November 24, 2020|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124231124/https://newyorklifestylesmagazine.com/archives/01_16/articles/dinkins.html|url-status=live}}</ref>


====Other longterm matters====
Dinkins's term was marked by polarizing events such as the ], a boycott of a Korean-owned grocery in ], Brooklyn, and the ]. When ] was acquitted of murdering ] during the ], Dinkins said, "I have no doubt that in this case the criminal-justice system has operated fairly and openly."<ref name="New York Magazine">{{cite news|last=Taylor|first=John|title=The Politics of Grievance: Dinkins, the Blacks, and the Jews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18|access-date=January 21, 2014|newspaper=New York Magazine|date=December 7, 1992|archive-date=June 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140626195622/http://books.google.com/books?id=o-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18|url-status=live}}</ref> Later he wrote in his memoirs, "I continue to fail to understand that verdict."<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" />


In 1991, when "Iraqi ]s were falling" in Israel<ref name=Trip2>{{Cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 9, 1993 |page=B3
|author=Clyde Haberman
|title=Dinkins Leaves Israel}}</ref> and the Mayor's press secretary said "security would be tight and ] would be provided for the contingent",<ref name=trip.TLV>{{cite web
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/26/nyregion/dinkins-to-lead-contingent-in-trip-to-israel.html
|title=Dinkins to Lead Contingent in Trip to Israel
|website=]
|author=Felicia R. Lee
|date=January 26, 1991
|access-date=August 1, 2018
|archive-date=November 24, 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053255/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/26/nyregion/dinkins-to-lead-contingent-in-trip-to-israel.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> Mayor Dinkins visited Israel as a sign of support.<ref name="UPI">{{cite web|author=Jonathan Ferziger|date=February 4, 1991|title=Dinkins visits Shamir, Patriots, Ethiopians|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/02/04/Dinkins-visits-Shamir-Patriots-Ethiopians/6223665643600|website=UPI.com|access-date=August 1, 2018|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053306/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/02/04/Dinkins-visits-Shamir-Patriots-Ethiopians/6223665643600/?ur3=1|url-status=live}}</ref>


The Dinkins administration was adversely affected by a declining economy, which led to lower tax revenue and budget shortfalls.<ref name=Powell>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/nyregion/26dinkins.html |title=Another Look at the Dinkins Administration, and Not by Giuliani |work=The New York Times |date=October 5, 2009 |author1=Powell, Michael |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053255/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/nyregion/26dinkins.html |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |access-date=February 7, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Nevertheless, Dinkins' mayoralty was marked by a number of significant achievements.<ref name=Powell /> New York City's crime rate, including the murder rate, declined in Dinkins' final years in office; Dinkins persuaded the state legislature to dedicate certain tax revenue for crime control (including an increase in the size of the ] along with after-school programs for teenagers), and he hired ] as police commissioner.<ref name=Powell /> ] was cleaned up during Dinkins' term, and he persuaded ] to rehabilitate the old ] on ].<ref name=Powell /> The city negotiated a ] of city park space to the ] to create the ] (which Mayor ] later called "the only good athletic sports stadium deal, not just in New York, but in the country").<ref name=Powell /> Dinkins continued an initiative begun by Ed Koch to rehabilitate dilapidated housing in northern Harlem, the ], and Brooklyn; overall more housing was rehabilitated in Dinkins' only term than Giuliani's two terms.<ref name=Powell /> With the support of Governor ], the city invested in ] for mentally ill homeless people and achieved a decrease in the size of the city's homeless shelter population to its lowest point in two decades.<ref name=NYT01 />
{{stub}}


===1993 election===
]
] {{Main|1993 New York City mayoral election}}
In 1993, Dinkins lost to ] ] in a rematch of the ]. Dinkins earned 48.3 percent of the vote, down from 51 percent in 1989.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE4DF153EF930A35752C1A965958260 | work=The New York Times | first=Todd S. | last=Purdum | title=Giuliani ousts Dinkins by a thin margin ... | date=November 3, 1993 | access-date=February 7, 2017 | archive-date=November 24, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053302/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/03/nyregion/1993-elections-mayor-giuliani-ousts-dinkins-thin-margin-whitman-upset-winner.html | url-status=live}}</ref> One factor in his loss was his perceived indifference to the plight of the Jewish community during the Crown Heights riot.<ref name=Shapiro>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=StQXz-ClGuUC |access-date=October 20, 2007 |last=Shapiro |first=Edward S. |year=2006 |title=Crown Heights: Blacks, Jews, and the 1991 Brooklyn Riot |location=Waltham, Massachusetts |publisher=] Press, ] |isbn=1-58465-561-5 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053302/https://books.google.com/books?id=StQXz-ClGuUC |url-status=live}}</ref> Another was a strong turnout for Giuliani in ]; a referendum on ] was placed on the ballot that year by Democratic Governor ] and the ].<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" />

==Later career==
]
From 1994 until his death, Dinkins was a professor of professional practice at the ] ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/david-dinkins |title=SIPA: Faculty David N. Dinkins |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053310/https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/david-dinkins |url-status=live}}</ref>

Dinkins was a member of the board of directors of the ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2020/11/david-dinkins-was-new-york-city-mayor-and-tennis-superfan/91928/|title=David Dinkins was a New York City mayor, and a tennis superfan|website=Tennis.com}}</ref> He served on the boards of the New York City Global Partners, the ], the Association to Benefit Children, and the ]. Dinkins was also on the advisory board of ] and the Black Leadership Forum, was a member of the ], and served as chairman ] of the board of directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.<ref name="usta.com">{{cite web|title=David N. Dinkins, Director at Large|url=http://www.usta.com/About-USTA/Organization/Board-of-Directors/Bio/DavidNDinkins_Director_at_Large/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100720032950/http://www.usta.com/About-USTA/Organization/Board-of-Directors/Bio/DavidNDinkins_Director_at_Large/|archive-date=July 20, 2010|access-date=September 1, 2017|publisher=United States Tennis Association}}</ref>

Dinkins' radio program ''Dialogue with Dinkins'' aired on ] radio in New York City from 1994 to 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wlib.com/pages/143245.php |title=Praise Team: On-Air Schedule|publisher=WLIB|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701102942/http://wlib.com/pages/143245.php|date=January 6, 2009|archive-date=July 1, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/decades-david-dinkins-signing-radio-station-wlib-article-1.1744770 |title=After two decades, David Dinkins signing off at radio station WLIB |date=April 4, 2014 |access-date=September 18, 2017 |author=Hinckley, David |work=] |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053321/https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/decades-david-dinkins-signing-radio-station-wlib-article-1.1744770 |url-status=live}}</ref> His memoirs, '']'',<ref name="publicaffairsbooks.com" /> written with ], were published in 2013.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053352/https://www.trentonian.com/news/trentonian-david-dinkins-tells-all-in-a-mayors-life/article_f93eb2ea-5f3d-5cf9-9dac-41310e2683e2.html |date=November 24, 2020}} Trenton (NJ) Trentonian, September 21, 2013.</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053323/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/books/review/if-mayors-ruled-the-world-and-a-mayors-life.html |date=November 24, 2020}} Roberts, Sam, ''The New York Times'', Sunday Book Review, November 22, 2013.</ref>

Although he never attempted a political comeback, Dinkins remained somewhat active in politics after his mayorship, and his endorsements of various candidates, including ] in the ], were well-publicized. He supported Democrats ] in the 2005 New York mayoral election, ] in 2009, and ] in 2013.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053305/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/thompson-picks-pair-key-endorsements-article-1.1362268 |date=November 24, 2020}} Fermino, Jennifer, ''Daily News'' (New York), June 3, 2013.</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053408/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/nyregion/the-ghosts-of-mayors-past.html |date=November 24, 2020}} Roberts, Sam, ''The New York Times'', September 29, 2013.</ref> During the ], Dinkins endorsed and actively campaigned for ].<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053306/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-01-21-dinkins-clark_x.htm |date=November 24, 2020}}, ''USA Today'', Associated Press, January 21, 2004.</ref> In the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Dinkins served as an elected delegate from New York for ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gazette.net/stories/10012010/polinew192830_32533.php |title=Reporters Notebook: New Yorkers make their mark on Maryland politics |work=The Gazette |location=Gaithersburg, MD |date=October 1, 2010 |access-date=September 23, 2011 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924040533/http://www.gazette.net/stories/10012010/polinew192830_32533.php |url-status=live}}</ref> During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Dinkins endorsed former Mayor ] for president on February 25, 2020, just before a Democratic debate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-david-dinkins-endorses-mike-bloomberg-president-20200226-lvzsmivq2nhovf22g3ri6nkghi-story.html|title=Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins endorses Mike Bloomberg for President|last=Wilkinson|first=Joseph|website=nydailynews.com|date=February 25, 2020 |access-date=February 26, 2020|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053307/https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-david-dinkins-endorses-mike-bloomberg-president-20200226-lvzsmivq2nhovf22g3ri6nkghi-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Dinkins sat on the board of directors and in 2013 was on the Honorary Founders Board of The ].<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303191255/http://jazzfoundation.org/about-jazz-foundation-america/board-committees/honorary-founders-board/hon-david-dinkins |date=March 3, 2015}}, JazzFoundation.org. Retrieved January 27, 2013.</ref><ref name="Dinkins PMC">McMullan, Patrick, May 10, 2009. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053318/https://www.patrickmcmullan.com/site/event_detail.aspx?eid=25724 |date=November 24, 2020}} patrickmcmullan.com, May 29, 2008. Event at the ], NYC. Accessed: May 10, 2009.</ref> He worked with that organization to save the homes and lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians who survived ]. He served on the boards of the ], the Association to Benefit Children, and the ]. Dinkins was also chairman emeritus of the board of directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.<ref name="usta.com" /> He was a champion of college access, serving on the ] National Board of Directors until his death in 2020.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053349/https://www.possefoundation.org/news-and-events/longtime-board-member-former-nyc-mayor-david-dinkins-reflects-on-path-to-education-posse |date=November 24, 2020}}, possefoundation.org. Retrieved April 19, 2019.</ref>

The ] in Manhattan was named after the former mayor in 2015 by mayor ].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hajela |first1=Deepti |title=David Dinkins, first Black mayor of New York City, dies at 93 |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/7480734/david-dinkins-new-york-mayor-obit/ |website=Global News |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=3 November 2022 |date=24 November 2020}}</ref>

==Personal life==
] game in 2010.]]
Dinkins married ], the daughter of Harlem political eminence ], in August 1953.<ref>{{cite news |title=Joyce Burrows and David Dinkins are wed in double ring ceremony |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/40478147/ |access-date=October 13, 2020 |work=The New York Age |date=September 5, 1953 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053308/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/40478147/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Marriott |first1=Michel |title=Joyce Dinkins, a Quiet Lady Who Is No Longer a Private Person |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/01/nyregion/joyce-dinkins-a-quiet-lady-who-is-no-longer-a-private-person.html |access-date=October 14, 2020 |work=New York Times |date=January 1, 1990 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053403/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/01/nyregion/joyce-dinkins-a-quiet-lady-who-is-no-longer-a-private-person.html |url-status=live}}</ref> They had two children, David Jr. and Donna.<ref name=david'slife /> When Dinkins became mayor of New York City, Joyce retired from her position at the State Department of Taxation and Finance. The couple were members of the ] in New York City. Joyce died on October 11, 2020, at the age of 89.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/joyce-dinkins-wife-of-nyc-s-first-black-mayor-dies/ar-BB19XndQ |title=Joyce Dinkins, wife of NYC's first Black mayor, dies |website=] |access-date=October 13, 2020 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124053311/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/joyce-dinkins-wife-of-nyc-s-first-black-mayor-dies/ar-BB19XndQ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Dinkins was a member of ] and ] ("the Boule"), the oldest collegiate and first professional ] ], respectively, established for African Americans. He was raised as a Master Mason in King David Lodge No. 15, F. & A. M., PHA, located in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1952.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/david-dinkins-new-yorks-only-black-mayor-has-died-at-93.html|title=David Dinkins, New York's First and Only Black Mayor, Has Died at 93|first=Matt|last=Stieb|date=November 24, 2020|website=Intelligencer}}</ref>

In 1994, Dinkins was part of an ] delegation to ].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/ENS/ENSphoto_display.pl?pr_number=94117&photo_index=0|title=piscopal Church Delegation to Haiti Finds Desperate Struggle to Cope|first=Anita|last=Lemonis|publisher=Episcopal News Service|date=June 15, 1994|access-date=November 24, 2020|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124231152/https://episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/ENS/ENSphoto_display.pl?pr_number=94117&photo_index=0|url-status=live}}</ref>

Dinkins was hospitalized in New York on October 31, 2013, for treatment of ].<ref>{{cite news|title=Dinkins hospitalized|url=http://www.myfoxny.com/story/23841785/dinkins-hospitalized|publisher=WNYW|location=New York|date=October 31, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101162407/http://www.myfoxny.com/story/23841785/dinkins-hospitalized|archive-date=November 1, 2013}}</ref> He was hospitalized again for pneumonia on February 19, 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nyc-mayor-dinkins-hospitalized-pneumonia-37068200|title=Former NYC Mayor Dinkins Hospitalized for Pneumonia|publisher=].com|access-date=February 20, 2016|archive-date=February 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220165115/http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nyc-mayor-dinkins-hospitalized-pneumonia-37068200|url-status=live}}</ref>

Dinkins starred as himself on April 13, 2018, in ], the 19th episode of the 8th season of the ] ] drama '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20180322cbs01/|title=Listings-Blue Bloods|date=April 13, 2018|website=The Futon Critic|access-date=March 31, 2018}}</ref>

===Death===
On November 23, 2020, Dinkins died from unspecified natural causes at his home on the ] of ], about a month after his wife's death. He was 93.<ref name=david'slife>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/nyregion/david-dinkins-dead.html|title = David N. Dinkins, New York's First Black Mayor, Dies at 93|work = ]|date = November 24, 2020|access-date = November 24, 2020|last = McFadden|first = Robert D.|author-link = Robert D. McFadden|archive-date = November 24, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201124231143/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/nyregion/david-dinkins-dead.html|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/former-new-york-city-mayor-david-dinkins-dies-at-93/2742619/|agency=NBC 4 New York|title=Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins Dies at 93|date=November 23, 2020|access-date=November 23, 2020|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124113714/https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/former-new-york-city-mayor-david-dinkins-dies-at-93/2742619/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Books ==
* {{Cite book |last1=Dinkins |first1=David N. |first2=Peter |last2=Knobler |year=2013 |title=A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic |url=https://archive.org/details/mayorslifegovern0000dink |location=New York |publisher=PublicAffairs Books |isbn=9781610393010 |oclc=826322884 |url-access=registration}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Politics|New York City|New York (state)}}
* ]
* ], 1980s–1990s

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=McNickle |first=Chris |year=2012 |title=The Power of the Mayor: David Dinkins, 1990–1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bpsuDwAAQBAJ |location=New Brunswick, NJ |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=9781412849593 |oclc=930793065}}
* ] (2020). '']''. New York.
* ].; Wynter, Leon (2007). ''And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress''. New York: St. Martin's Press.
* John C. Walker (1989). ''The Harlem Fox: ] at Tammany 1920–1970'', New York: State University New York Press.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*
* {{C-SPAN|3029}}
* {{Find a Grave|218956860|David Dinkins}}
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Latest revision as of 06:06, 26 December 2024

Mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993

David Dinkins
Dinkins in 1986
106th Mayor of New York City
In office
January 1, 1990 – December 31, 1993
Preceded byEd Koch
Succeeded byRudy Giuliani
23rd Borough President of Manhattan
In office
January 1, 1986 – December 31, 1989
Preceded byAndrew Stein
Succeeded byRuth Messinger
Member of the New York State Assembly
from the 78th district
In office
January 1, 1966 – December 31, 1966
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byEdward A. Stevenson Sr.
Personal details
BornDavid Norman Dinkins
(1927-07-10)July 10, 1927
Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedNovember 23, 2020(2020-11-23) (aged 93)
New York City, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Other political
affiliations
Democratic Socialists of America
Spouse Joyce Burrows ​ ​(m. 1953; died 2020)
Children2
EducationHoward University (BS)
Brooklyn Law School (LLB)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Marine Corps
Years of service1945–1946

David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993.

Dinkins was among the more than 20,000 Montford Point Marines, the first African-American U.S. Marines, from 1945 to 1946. He graduated cum laude from Howard University and received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1956. A longtime member of Harlem's Carver Democratic Club, Dinkins began his electoral career by serving in the New York State Assembly in 1966, eventually advancing to Manhattan borough president. He won the 1989 New York City mayoral election, becoming the first African American to hold the office. After losing re-election in 1993, Dinkins joined the faculty of Columbia University while remaining active in municipal politics.

Early life and education

Dinkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Sarah "Sally" Lucy Dinkins, a domestic worker, and William Harvey Dinkins Jr., a barber and real estate agent. His parents separated when he was six years old, after which he was raised by his father. Dinkins moved to Harlem as a child before returning to Trenton. He attended Trenton Central High School, where he graduated in 1945.

Upon graduating, Dinkins attempted to enlist in the United States Marine Corps but was told that a racial quota had been filled. After traveling the Northeastern United States, he finally found a recruiting station that had not, in his words, "filled their quota for Negro Marines"; however, World War II was over before Dinkins finished boot camp. He served in the Marine Corps from July 1945 through August 1946, attaining the rank of private first class. Dinkins was among the Montford Point Marines who received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

Dinkins graduated cum laude from Howard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1950. He received his LL.B. from Brooklyn Law School in 1956.

Political career

Early and middle career

While maintaining a private law practice from 1956 to 1975, Dinkins rose through the Democratic Party organization in Harlem, beginning at the Carver Democratic Club under the aegis of J. Raymond Jones. He became part of an influential group of African American politicians that included Denny Farrell, Percy Sutton, Basil Paterson, and Charles Rangel; the latter three together with Dinkins were known as the "Gang of Four". As an investor, Dinkins was one of fifty African American investors who helped Sutton found Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in 1971.

Dinkins briefly represented the 78th District of the New York State Assembly in 1966. From 1972 to 1973, he was president of the New York City Board of Elections. In late 1973, he was poised to take office as New York City's first Black deputy mayor in the administration of Mayor-elect Abraham D. Beame; however, the appointment was not effectuated amid "difficulties that stemmed from failure to pay federal, state or city personal income taxes for four years." Instead, he served as city clerk (characterized by Robert D. McFadden as a "patronage appointee who kept marriage licenses and municipal records") from 1975 to 1985. He was elected Manhattan borough president in 1985 on his third run for that office. On November 7, 1989, Dinkins was elected mayor of New York City, defeating three-term incumbent mayor Ed Koch and two others in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee Rudy Giuliani in the general election. During his campaign, Dinkins sought the blessing and endorsement of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Dinkins was elected in the wake of a corruption scandal that stemmed from the decline of longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman and preeminent New York City political leader Meade Esposito's American Mafia-influenced patronage network, ultimately precipitating the suicide of Queens Borough President Donald Manes and a series of criminal convictions among the city's Democratic leadership. In March 1989, the New York City Board of Estimate (which served as the primary governing instrument of various patronage networks for decades, often superseding the mayoralty in influence) also was declared unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause by the Supreme Court of the United States; this prompted the empanelment of the New York City Charter Revision Commission, which abolished the Board of Estimate and assigned most of its responsibilities to an enlarged New York City Council via a successful referendum in November. Koch, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was politically damaged by his administration's ties to the Esposito network and his handling of racial issues, exemplified by his fealty to affluent interests in predominantly white areas of Manhattan. This enabled Dinkins to attenuate public perceptions of his previous patronage appointments and emerge as a formidable, reform-minded challenger to Koch. Additionally, the fact that Dinkins was African American helped him to avoid criticism that he was ignoring the Black vote by campaigning to whites. While a large turnout of African American voters was important to his election, Dinkins campaigned throughout the city. Dinkins' campaign manager was political consultant William Lynch Jr., who became one of his first deputy mayors.

Mayoralty

Crime

Dinkins (second from the left) with New York governor Mario Cuomo, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney; Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, and General Norman Schwarzkopf

Dinkins entered office in January 1990 pledging racial healing, and famously referred to New York City's demographic diversity as "not a melting pot, but a gorgeous mosaic". The crime rate in New York City had risen alarmingly during the 1980s, and the rate of homicide in particular reached an all-time high of 2,245 cases during 1990, the first year of the Dinkins administration. The rates of most crimes, including all categories of violent crime, then declined during the remainder of his four-year term. That ended a 30-year upward spiral and initiated a trend of falling rates that continued and accelerated beyond his term. However, the high absolute levels, the peak early in his administration, and the only modest decline subsequently (homicide down 12% from 1990 to 1993) resulted in Dinkins' suffering politically from the perception that crime remained out of control on his watch. Dinkins in fact initiated a hiring program that expanded the police department nearly 25%. The New York Times reported, "He obtained the State Legislature's permission to dedicate a tax to hire thousands of police officers, and he fought to preserve a portion of that anticrime money to keep schools open into the evening, an award-winning initiative that kept tens of thousands of teenagers off the street."

Dinkins' term was marked by a greater push toward accountability and oversight regarding police misconduct, which led to friction between Dinkins and the city's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA). In 1992, Dinkins proposed a bill to change the leadership of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the oversight body that examined complaints of police misconduct, from half-cop–half-civilian to all civilian and make it independent of the New York Police Department. Following the Washington Heights Riot, fueled by the beating of Jose "Kiko" Garcia, an undocumented Dominican Republic immigrant, by a police officer, Dinkins attempted to defuse tensions by inviting Garcia's family to Gracie Mansion. This gesture outraged the city's PBA, who claimed Dinkins's actions showed favoritism toward Garcia and bias against the police. To condemn Dinkins' position on policing, the city PBA organized a protest on September 16, 1992, which quickly turned violent when nearly 4,000 off-duty police officers blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and knocked over police barricades in an attempt to rush City Hall. The nearly 300 uniformed on-duty officers did little to control the riot. Despite the riot and objections from the PBA, the CCRB was reorganized and made independent from the police department in July 1993.

Dealmaking

Dinkins was rebuffed in his attempt to end the licensing of locksmiths.

During his final days in office, Dinkins made last-minute negotiations with the sanitation workers, presumably to preserve the public status of garbage removal. Giuliani, who had defeated Dinkins in the 1993 mayoral race, blamed Dinkins for a "cheap political trick" when Dinkins planned the resignation of Victor Gotbaum, Dinkins' appointee on the board of education, thus guaranteeing Gotbaum's replacement six months in office. Dinkins also signed a last-minute 99-year lease with the USTA National Tennis Center. By negotiating a fee for New York City based on the event's gross income, the Dinkins administration made a deal with the US Open that brings more economic benefit to the City of New York each year than the New York Yankees, New York Mets, New York Knicks, and New York Rangers combined. The city's revenue-producing events Fashion Week, Restaurant Week, and Broadway on Broadway were all created under Dinkins.

Other longterm matters

Dinkins's term was marked by polarizing events such as the Family Red Apple boycott, a boycott of a Korean-owned grocery in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the 1991 Crown Heights riot. When Lemrick Nelson was acquitted of murdering Yankel Rosenbaum during the Crown Heights riots, Dinkins said, "I have no doubt that in this case the criminal-justice system has operated fairly and openly." Later he wrote in his memoirs, "I continue to fail to understand that verdict."

In 1991, when "Iraqi Scud missiles were falling" in Israel and the Mayor's press secretary said "security would be tight and gas masks would be provided for the contingent", Mayor Dinkins visited Israel as a sign of support.

The Dinkins administration was adversely affected by a declining economy, which led to lower tax revenue and budget shortfalls. Nevertheless, Dinkins' mayoralty was marked by a number of significant achievements. New York City's crime rate, including the murder rate, declined in Dinkins' final years in office; Dinkins persuaded the state legislature to dedicate certain tax revenue for crime control (including an increase in the size of the New York Police Department along with after-school programs for teenagers), and he hired Raymond W. Kelly as police commissioner. Times Square was cleaned up during Dinkins' term, and he persuaded The Walt Disney Company to rehabilitate the old New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street. The city negotiated a 99-year lease of city park space to the United States Tennis Association to create the USTA National Tennis Center (which Mayor Michael Bloomberg later called "the only good athletic sports stadium deal, not just in New York, but in the country"). Dinkins continued an initiative begun by Ed Koch to rehabilitate dilapidated housing in northern Harlem, the South Bronx, and Brooklyn; overall more housing was rehabilitated in Dinkins' only term than Giuliani's two terms. With the support of Governor Mario Cuomo, the city invested in supportive housing for mentally ill homeless people and achieved a decrease in the size of the city's homeless shelter population to its lowest point in two decades.

1993 election

Main article: 1993 New York City mayoral election

In 1993, Dinkins lost to Republican Rudy Giuliani in a rematch of the 1989 election. Dinkins earned 48.3 percent of the vote, down from 51 percent in 1989. One factor in his loss was his perceived indifference to the plight of the Jewish community during the Crown Heights riot. Another was a strong turnout for Giuliani in Staten Island; a referendum on Staten Island's secession from New York was placed on the ballot that year by Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Later career

Dinkins in 2014.

From 1994 until his death, Dinkins was a professor of professional practice at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Dinkins was a member of the board of directors of the United States Tennis Association. He served on the boards of the New York City Global Partners, the Children's Health Fund, the Association to Benefit Children, and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. Dinkins was also on the advisory board of Independent News & Media and the Black Leadership Forum, was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as chairman emeritus of the board of directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

Dinkins' radio program Dialogue with Dinkins aired on WLIB radio in New York City from 1994 to 2014. His memoirs, A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic, written with Peter Knobler, were published in 2013.

Although he never attempted a political comeback, Dinkins remained somewhat active in politics after his mayorship, and his endorsements of various candidates, including Mark Green in the 2001 mayoral race, were well-publicized. He supported Democrats Fernando Ferrer in the 2005 New York mayoral election, Bill Thompson in 2009, and Bill de Blasio in 2013. During the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, Dinkins endorsed and actively campaigned for Wesley Clark. In the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Dinkins served as an elected delegate from New York for Hillary Clinton. During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Dinkins endorsed former Mayor Michael Bloomberg for president on February 25, 2020, just before a Democratic debate.

Dinkins sat on the board of directors and in 2013 was on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America. He worked with that organization to save the homes and lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina. He served on the boards of the Children's Health Fund (CHF), the Association to Benefit Children, and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF). Dinkins was also chairman emeritus of the board of directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. He was a champion of college access, serving on the Posse Foundation National Board of Directors until his death in 2020.

The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building in Manhattan was named after the former mayor in 2015 by mayor Bill de Blasio.

Personal life

Dinkins watching a US Open tennis game in 2010.

Dinkins married Joyce Burrows, the daughter of Harlem political eminence Daniel L. Burrows, in August 1953. They had two children, David Jr. and Donna. When Dinkins became mayor of New York City, Joyce retired from her position at the State Department of Taxation and Finance. The couple were members of the Church of the Intercession in New York City. Joyce died on October 11, 2020, at the age of 89.

Dinkins was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi ("the Boule"), the oldest collegiate and first professional Greek-letter fraternities, respectively, established for African Americans. He was raised as a Master Mason in King David Lodge No. 15, F. & A. M., PHA, located in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1952.

In 1994, Dinkins was part of an Episcopal Church delegation to Haiti.

Dinkins was hospitalized in New York on October 31, 2013, for treatment of pneumonia. He was hospitalized again for pneumonia on February 19, 2016.

Dinkins starred as himself on April 13, 2018, in "Risk Management", the 19th episode of the 8th season of the CBS police procedural drama Blue Bloods.

Death

On November 23, 2020, Dinkins died from unspecified natural causes at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, about a month after his wife's death. He was 93.

Books

See also

References

  1. Dinkins, David (July 21, 2005). "Transcript of Interview with Dinkins, David". library.uncw.edu.
  2. "Dinkins Seriously Considers Entering the Race for Mayor" Archived November 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Lynn, Frank, The New York Times, December 8, 1988.
  3. ^ Dinkins, David N.; Knobler, Peter (2013). A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-301-0.
  4. ^ McQuiston, John T. (October 20, 1991). "William Dinkins, Mayor's Father And Real Estate Agent, Dies at 85". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  5. Abdur-Rahman, Sulaiman (November 24, 2020). "Legendary city native David Dinkins dies at 93". The Trentonian. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  6. ^ Hockenberry, John (June 27, 2012). "First Black Marines Awarded Congressional Gold Medal". The Takeaway. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  7. Marriott, Michel (November 28, 1988). "To Run or Not to Run: Dinkins's Struggle". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  8. "David Dinkins Biography – 1190 WLIB – Your Praise & Inspiration Station". Wlib.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  9. ^ Cheers, D. Michael. "Mayor of 'The Big Apple': 'nice guy' image helps David N. Dinkins in building multi-ethnic, multiracial coalition – New York City" Archived November 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, Ebony (magazine), February 1990. Accessed September 4, 2008.
  10. "Marquis Biographies Online". Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  11. "J. Raymond Jones, Harlem Kingmaker, Dies at 91" Archived November 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Fraser, C. Gerald, The New York Times, June 11, 1991.
  12. Schapiro, Rich, "Harlem 'trailblazer', former World War II Tuskegee Archived November 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Airmen Percy Sutton dies", New York Daily News, December 27, 2009.
  13. "David Dinkins, New York's First and Only Black Mayor, Dies at 93". Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  14. Schumach, Murray (December 29, 1973). "Dinkins Pulls Out as Aide to Beame; Failed to Pay Tax". The New York Times.
  15. Boyd, Herb; Arinde, Nayaba (November 24, 2020). "David N. Dinkins, the first Black mayor of New York City, dead at 93". St. Louis American.
  16. McFadden, Robert D. (November 24, 2020). "David N. Dinkins, New York's First Black Mayor, Dies at 93". The New York Times.
  17. "NYC 100 – NYC Mayors – The First 100 Years". Nyc.gov. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  18. Ehrlich, M. Avrum, The Messiah of Brooklyn: Understanding Lubavitch Hasidim Past and Present (KTAV Publishing, January 2005), p. 109. ISBN 0-88125-836-9
  19. Lankevich, George J. (2002). New York City: A Short History. NYU Press. pp. 237–238, paragraph 3. ISBN 9780814751862. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  20. Thompson, J. Phillip, "David Dinkins' Victory in New York City: The Decline of the Democratic Party Organization and the Strengthening of Black Politics" Archived November 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, Political Science & Politics, June 1990.
  21. Katz, Celeste (August 9, 2013). "Political consultant William Lynch Jr. dies at 72". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  22. Purdum, Todd S. (January 2, 1990). "Mayor Dinkins; Dinkins Sworn In; Stresses Aid to Youth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  23. The Power of the Mayor, Chris McNickle, p. 355
  24. Dinkins, David N.; Knobler, Peter (2013). A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-301-0. Riggio, Len, Foreword, p. xi.
  25. Langan, Patrick A.; Matthew R. Durose (December 2003). "The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City". In Linda Laura Sabbadini; Maria Giuseppina Muratore; Giovanna Tagliacozzo (eds.). Towards a Safer Society: The Knowledge Contribution of Statistical Information (PDF). Rome: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (published 2009). pp. 131–174. ISBN 978-88-458-1640-6. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 7, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018. According to NYPD statistical analysis, crime in New York City took a downturn starting around 1990 that continued for many years, shattering all the city's old records for consecutive-year declines in crime rates.
  26. The Power of the Mayor, Chris McNickle, p. 356
  27. Barrett, Wayne (June 25, 2001). "Giuliani's Legacy: Taking Credit For Things He Didn't Do". Gotham Gazette. Archived from the original on October 18, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
  28. ^ Powell, Michael (October 25, 2009). "Another Look at the Dinkins Administration, and Not by Giuliani". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
  29. Roberts, Sam (August 7, 1994). "As Police Force Adds to Ranks, Some Promises Still Unfulfilled". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
  30. Nahmias, Laura (October 4, 2021). "White Riot In 1992, thousands of furious, drunken cops descended on City Hall – the Queen's visit and changed New York history". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  31. Finder, Alan (September 11, 1992). "The Washington Heights Case; In Washington Heights, Dinkins Defends Actions After Shooting". The New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  32. Oliver, Pamela (July 18, 2020). "When the NYPD Rioted – Race, Politics, Justice". Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  33. Voorhees, Josh (December 22, 2014). "Déjà Blue". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  34. Manegold, Catherine S. (September 27, 1992). "Rally Puts Police Under New Scrutiny". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  35. Mckinley, James C. Jr. (September 17, 1992). "Officers Rally And Dinkins Is Their Target". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  36. "Shielded from Justice: New York: Civilian Complaint Review Board". www.hrw.org. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  37. Rebuffed by NYC City Council via a technicality David Seifman (July 3, 1992). "Dave gives some business license to skip license". New York Post. p. 8. the Council's Consumer Affairs Committee failed to muster a quorum
  38. New York City and Miami have their own licensing laws. "States with Locksmith Laws". February 7, 2018.
  39. Siegel, Fred, The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2005), p. 90.
  40. Nesoff, Bob. "David Dinkins! New York Now and Then". New York Lifestyles Magazine. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  41. Taylor, John (December 7, 1992). "The Politics of Grievance: Dinkins, the Blacks, and the Jews". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on June 26, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  42. Clyde Haberman (July 9, 1993). "Dinkins Leaves Israel". The New York Times. p. B3.
  43. Felicia R. Lee (January 26, 1991). "Dinkins to Lead Contingent in Trip to Israel". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  44. Jonathan Ferziger (February 4, 1991). "Dinkins visits Shamir, Patriots, Ethiopians". UPI.com. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  45. ^ Powell, Michael (October 5, 2009). "Another Look at the Dinkins Administration, and Not by Giuliani". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  46. Purdum, Todd S. (November 3, 1993). "Giuliani ousts Dinkins by a thin margin ..." The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  47. Shapiro, Edward S. (2006). Crown Heights: Blacks, Jews, and the 1991 Brooklyn Riot. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, University Press of New England. ISBN 1-58465-561-5. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  48. "SIPA: Faculty David N. Dinkins". Columbia University. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
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Further reading

External links

New York State Assembly
New district Member of the New York Assembly
from the 78th district

1966
Succeeded byEdward A. Stevenson Sr.
Political offices
Preceded byAndrew Stein Borough President of Manhattan
1986–1989
Succeeded byRuth Messinger
Preceded byEd Koch Mayor of New York City
1990–1993
Succeeded byRudy Giuliani
Party political offices
Preceded byBill Thompson Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City
1989, 1993
Succeeded byRuth Messinger
Mayors of New York City since the 1898 consolidation
Borough presidents of Manhattan
Democratic Party nominees for mayor of New York City since the 1898 consolidation
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