365NEWSX
365NEWSX
Subscribe

Welcome

NYC's first African-American mayor, David Dinkins, has died

NYC's first African-American mayor, David Dinkins, has died

NYC's first African-American mayor, David Dinkins, has died
Nov 24, 2020 1 min, 37 secs

NEW YORK -- David Dinkins, who broke barriers as New York City’s first African American mayor, but was doomed to a single term by a soaring murder rate, stubborn unemployment and his mishandling of a riot in Brooklyn, has died.

Dinkins died Monday, the New York City Police Department confirmed.

“Dave, Do Something!” screamed one New York Post headline in 1990, Dinkins’ first year in office.

In recent years, he’s gotten more credit for those accomplishments, credit that Mayor Bill de Blasio said he should have always had.

De Blasio, who worked in Dinkins’ administration, named Manhattan’s Municipal Building after the former mayor in October 2015.

“The example Mayor David Dinkins set for all of us shines brighter than the most powerful lighthouse imaginable,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who herself shattered barriers as the state's first Black woman elected to statewide office.

A state report issued in 1993, an election year, cleared Dinkins of the persistently repeated charge that he intentionally held back police in the first days of the violence, but criticized him for not stepping up as a leader.

Dinkins’ election as mayor in 1989 came after two racially charged cases that took place under Koch: the rape of a white jogger in Central Park and the bias murder of a Black teenager in Bensonhurst.

But in a city where party registration was 5-to-1 Democratic, Dinkins barely scraped by the Republican Giuliani in the general election, capturing only 30 percent of the white vote.

His administration had one early high note: Newly freed Nelson Mandela made New York City his first stop in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the city’s murder toll soared to an all-time high, with a record 2,245 homicides during his first year as mayor.

There were 8,340 New Yorkers killed during the Dinkins administration — the bloodiest four-year stretch since the New York Police Department began keeping statistics in 1963.

In the first year of the Giuliani administration, murders fell from 1,946 to 1,561.

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED