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A28 u.s. news
Diaranson 25 november 2020

New York City's first Black mayor, David Dinkins, dies at 93

(AP) — David Dinkins, party registration was 5-to-1
who broke barriers as Democratic, Dinkins barely
New York City’s first Af- scraped by the Republican
rican American mayor but Giuliani in the general elec-
was doomed to a single tion, capturing only 30% of
term by a soaring murder the white vote.
rate, stubborn unemploy- His administration had one
ment and his mishandling early high note: Newly freed
of a riot in Brooklyn, has Nelson Mandela made New
died. He was 93. York City his first stop in the
U.S. in 1990. Dinkins had
Dinkins' death Monday was been a longtime, outspoken
confirmed by his assistant at critic of apartheid in South
Columbia University, where Africa.
he taught after leaving office, In that same year, though,
and by Mayor Bill de Blasio, Dinkins was criticized for his
his onetime staffer. The for- handling of a Black-led boy-
mer mayor's death came just cott of Korean-operated gro-
weeks after the death of his cery stores in Brooklyn. Crit-
wife, Joyce, who died in Oc- ics contended Dinkins wait-
tober at the age of 89. ed too long to intervene. He
Dinkins, a calm and courtly ultimately ended up crossing
figure with a penchant for the boycott line to shop at the
tennis and formal wear, was a stores — but only after Koch
dramatic shift from both his did.
predecessor, Ed Koch, and During Dinkins’ tenure, the
his successor, Rudy Giuliani city’s finances were in rough
— two combative and often we could be better, believed was fatally stabbed. Nearly allowed to use the school shape because of a recession
abrasive politicians in a city we could overcome our di- 190 people were hurt. swimming pool. that cost New York 357,000
with a world-class reputation visions,” de Blasio said at a A state report issued in 1993 During a stint in the Ma- private-sector jobs in his first
for impatience and rudeness. news briefing Tuesday. “He — an election year — cleared rine Corps as a young man, three years in office.
In his inaugural address, he showed us what it was like to Dinkins of the persistently a Southern bus driver barred Meanwhile, the city’s mur-
spoke lovingly of New York be a gentleman, to be a kind repeated charge that he in- him from boarding a segre- der toll soared to an all-time
as a “gorgeous mosaic of race person no matter what was tentionally held back police gated bus because the section high, with a record 2,245 ho-
and religious faith, of national thrown at him. And a lot was in the first days of the vio- for Black people was filled. micides during his first year
origin and sexual orientation, thrown at him." lence, but criticized him for “And I was in my country’s as mayor. There were 8,340
of individuals whose families The Rev. Al Sharpton noted not stepping up as a leader. uniform!” Dinkins recount- New Yorkers killed during
arrived yesterday and gen- that Dinkins took office dur- In a 2013 memoir, Dinkins ed years later. the Dinkins administration
erations ago, coming through ing a time of racial discord accused the police depart- While attending Howard — the bloodiest four-year
Ellis Island or Kennedy Air- following the 1989 shooting ment of letting the dis- University, the historically stretch since the New York
port or on buses bound for death of Yusuf Hawkins, a turbance get out of hand, Black university in Washing- City Police Department be-
the Port Authority.” Black teenager who was at- and also took a share of the ton, D.C., Dinkins said he gan keeping statistics in 1963.
But the city he inherited had tacked by a gang of youths blame, on the grounds that gained admission to segregat- In the last years of his admin-
an ugly side, too. in a predominantly white “the buck stopped with me.” ed movie theaters by wearing istration, record-high ho-
AIDS, guns and crack co- Brooklyn neighborhood. But he bitterly blamed his a turban and faking a foreign micides began a decline that
caine killed thousands of “In that climate he preached a election defeat on prejudice: accent. continued for decades. In
people each year. Unemploy- gorgeous mosaic and proved “I think it was just racism, Back in New York with the first year of the Giuliani
ment soared. Homelessness that we could achieve the pure and simple.” a degree in mathematics, administration, murders fell
was rampant. The city faced highest levels of municipal Giuliani, now President Dinkins married his college from 1,946 to 1,561.
a $1.5 billion budget deficit. power in the nation's largest Donald Trump’s personal sweetheart, Joyce Burrows, One of Dinkins’ last acts in
Dinkins’ low-key, considered city, and he did it when the lawyer, tweeted his condo- in 1953. His father-in-law, a 1993 was to sign an agree-
approach quickly came to be city was torn apart,” Sharp- lences to Dinkins’ family. power in local Democratic ment with the United States
perceived as a flaw. Critics ton told The Associated “He gave a great deal of his politics, channeled Din- Tennis Association that gave
said he was too soft and too Press. “He did it by having a life in service to our great kins into a Harlem political the organization a 99-year
slow. balance of understanding the City,” the former mayor club. Dinkins paid his dues lease on city land in Queens
“Dave, Do Something!” community's needs and the wrote. “That service is re- as a Democratic functionary in return for building a ten-
screamed one New York Post needs of the city.” spected and honored by all.” while earning a law degree nis complex. That deal guar-
headline in 1990, Dinkins’ Dinkins didn't get fast New York Attorney Gen- from Brooklyn Law School, anteed that the U.S. Open
first year in office. enough results from his ef- eral Letitia James, who her- and then went into private would remain in New York
Dinkins did a lot at City Hall. forts, though, to earn a sec- self shattered barriers as the practice. City for decades.
He raised taxes to hire thou- ond term. state’s first Black woman He was elected to the state After leaving office, Dinkins
sands of police officers. He After beating Giuliani by elected to statewide office, Assembly in 1965, became was a professor at Columbia
spent billions of dollars re- only 47,000 votes out of 1.75 said the example Dinkins set the first Black president of University’s School of Inter-
vitalizing neglected housing. million cast in 1989, Dinkins inspired her throughout her the city’s Board of Elections national and Public Affairs.
His administration got the lost a rematch by roughly the own political career. in 1972 and went on to serve He had a pacemaker inserted
Walt Disney Corp. to invest same margin in 1993. “I was honored to have him as Manhattan borough presi- in August 2008, and under-
in the cleanup of then-seedy Political historians often trace hold the bible at my inaugu- dent. went an emergency appen-
Times Square. the defeat to Dinkins’ han- rations because I, and others, Dinkins’ election as mayor in dectomy in October 2007.
In recent years, he’s gotten dling of the Crown Heights stand on his shoulders,” she 1989 came after two cases un- He also was hospitalized in
more credit for those accom- riot in Brooklyn in 1991. said in a statement. der Koch exacerbated racial March 1992 for a bacterial
plishments, credit that de The violence began after a Born in Trenton, New Jer- tensions in the city: the rape infection that stemmed from
Blasio said Dinkins should car in the motorcade of an sey, on July 10, 1927, Din- of a white jogger in Central an abscess on the wall of his
have always had. De Blasio, Orthodox Jewish religious kins moved with his mother Park — for which five Black large intestine. He was treat-
who worked in Dinkins’ ad- leader struck and killed to Harlem when his parents teenagers were convicted ed with antibiotics and recov-
ministration, named Man- 7-year-old Gavin Cato, who divorced, but returned to his and later exonerated — and ered in a week.
hattan’s Municipal Building was Black. During the three hometown to attend high Hawkins’ killing. Dinkins is survived by his
after his mentor in October days of anti-Jewish rioting school. There, he learned an Dinkins defeated Koch, 50% son, David Jr., daughter,
2015. by young Black men that fol- early lesson in discrimina- to 42%, in the Democratic Donna, and two grandchil-
“David Dinkins believed that lowed, a rabbinical student tion: Black people were not primary. But in a city where dren.