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

[malaise]

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-david-dinkins-former-mayor-has-died-20201124-rshgkrczyjdt7p5fvmtijif4iy-story.html

David Dinkins, whose historic 1989 victory as the city’s first and only black mayor was quickly eclipsed by rising crime and racial turmoil that doomed his re-election, died Monday at his home, police said. He was 93.

His death comes a little more than a month after his wife, Joyce, passed away on Oct. 11.

Dinkins, in his two decades after leaving City Hall, kept a busy schedule but a relatively low profile — teaching at Columbia University, doing charity work and making occasional appearances.

His autobiography “A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic” was published in 2013, its title playing off Dinkins’ most memorable line during his four years in City Hall.

[Dem4Life1102]

1. Dinkins was blamed for Koch's failures

and Giuliani took credit for his successes.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. And blamed for the aftermath of the death of Gavin Cato.

The City was electric with outrage for more than a week.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Heights_riot

[Sherman A1]

3. Sad

[BumRushDaShow]

4. I have posted this multiple times the past couple weeks

but his dealing with the lunatic Ghouliani almost 30 years ago really underscores how much time has passed but how so many things haven't changed... at least until this year.

I will say, continually listening to the black talk stations in NYC (e.g., WLIB and Bob Law) in the late '80s and early '90s while Dinkins was mayor - that era did trigger a reawakening in correcting the malfeasance that had been done over a century with African and African-American history in the U.S. curriculum, giving birth to the Afrocentric movement. In fact, and I literally just discovered something about 10 minutes ago, about one of the popular and controversial figures there during that time - Dr. Leonard Jeffries - OMG I didn't realize (but it makes sense) that firebrand Congressman Hakim Jeffries is his nephew!!

I am sorry to see that Mr. Dinkins is no longer with us but he did serve as a powerful symbol of what was possible as barriers to black politicians getting elected to higher offices were continuing to fall (similar to the historic election of Harold Washington in Chicago and of Doug Wilder as Governor of VA). As America's largest city, NYC was a crown jewel. I think he had been the Borough President of Manhattan (of all places) just prior to his run for mayor, so that had given him quite a bit of exposure to the electorate.