David Dinkins… New York City’s first black mayor, dies at 93

Jaclyn Diaz

DAVID Dinkins, New York City’s only African-American mayor, died Monday night at 93.

Dinkins led New York as its mayor during the early 1990s, a position he called “the greatest job there is.”

Dinkins’ office operations manager, Lynda Hamilton, confirmed his death to NPR early Tuesday.

Dinkins broke barriers with his 1989 election, managing to defeat three-term incumbent Ed Koch during the Democratic primary that year and later to best Republican Rudy Giuliani in the general election. Giuliani would go on to defeat Dinkins for the position in four years later.

Early Tuesday, Giuliani expressed his condolences on Twitter, saying of Dinkins, “He gave a great deal of his life in service to our great City. That service is respected and honored by all.”

Dinkins’ tenure came at a contentious time for the city plagued with economic woes, crime, and racial tension. Many criticised his handling of those tensions in some of the city’s neighborhoods and particularly with a slow response to the 1991 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, riots.

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Leading New York is the ‘greatest job there is’

(Excerpts from an interview)

IN an interview with NPR in 2013 following the release of his book, A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic, Dinkins expressed deep love for the city.

“I think it’s the greatest town in the world,” he said, adding that he thought the passage of time would put a new light on his legacy.

“I’m confident that when people look back… 20, 30 years, they might say, ‘Oh, gee, you know? Those guys did a pretty good job,” he said.

Dinkins was graduate of Howard University and Brooklyn Law School. After his political career, he was a professor at Columbia University.

His death comes just a little more than a month after his wife, Joyce Burrows, died at the age of 89.

On the 1991 Crown Heights riot

The New York City police — who are the best in the world at controlling riot situations — did not do a sufficiently good job on that occasion. And it wasn’t until, after a couple of days, I said, “Whatever the hell you’re doing, it ain’t working.” … But in the meantime, it was said by some that I or others in our administration had given orders for the police to not stop the blacks from attacking Jews. That just wasn’t true. … It was particularly harmful to me because I considered myself a friend to the Jewish community and the state of Israel. … Certainly, I would have insisted sooner in Crown Heights that the police did a better job. I would not have tolerated that as long as I did.

On a Howard University professor’s influence on him

She wouldn’t tolerate grammatical errors. She was insistent that we speak correctly. And I learned from her … in every office that I have had, where we had speechwriters and what not, I could envision little 3×5 cards, that would say “don’t you dare ever say between he and I.”

On his legacy

I’m confident that when people look back … 20, 30 years, they might say, “Oh, gee, you know? Those guys did a pretty good job.” I like New York, I think it’s — with all due respect to those of you who live elsewhere — I think it’s the greatest town in the world. And being mayor of New York is the greatest job there is, save the one that President Obama has.

A Mayor’s Life

Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic

by David N. Dinkins and Peter Knobler

Hardcover, 385 pages

purchase

As New York City enters the final stretch of its latest mayoral campaign, Tell Me More host Michel Martin hears from a former Big Apple mayor who made history: David Dinkins.

Winning the office in 1989, Dinkins earned the glare of national attention not only as the mayor of one of the country’s most important cities, but also as that city’s first black mayor.

It was a difficult time for the city. Race relations were fractured, the economy was struggling, and many neighborhoods were gripped by a crack epidemic.

Dinkins chronicles that period, and his political journey, in the new book A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic.

Interview Highlights