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David Dinkins, who was elected New York’s first black mayor in 1989 and called the country’s largest metropolis a “magnificent mosaic,” died Monday evening, sources told The Post.
The former mayor died of natural causes at his Upper East Side home around 9:30 p.m. He was 93 years old.
A home health aide discovered that Dinkins was not breathing and called 911, sources said.
His death comes just over a month after his wife, Joyce, passed away at their home. She was 89 years old.
Dinkins – who defeated three-term holder Ed Koch in the 1989 Democratic primary – defeated Republican Rudy Giuliani that year to become the city’s 106th mayor.
Giuliani mourned the death of Dinkins on Monday evening.
“I offer my deepest condolences to the family of Mayor David Dinkins and to the many New Yorkers who loved and supported him,” Giuliani wrote on Twitter.
“He gave a large part of his life in the service of our great city. This service is respected and honored by all.
He would serve a term until 1993, when he narrowly lost his candidacy for re-election in another match against his GOP nemesis.
His rise to power was marked by rampant crime and racial unrest. Despite the turmoil, he ruled the city with a grace and dignity respected even by his political opponents and left him an admired figure at the end of his term.
“David was a historic mayor. It showed that a black candidate can win biracial support in a city-wide race, ”said former governor David Paterson, who became the first African-American governor.
“There is a special appreciation for him. He did his best to be the mayor of all the people.
Dinkins ruled the country’s largest city two decades before Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president.
“David Dinkins was a precursor to Barack Obama. He was elected saying the same things, ”said civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
“He helped change the psychology of American politics, making it more inclusive and more progressive.”
Whether the residents agreed with his liberal policies or not, Dinkins was loved by many.
“He maintained the dignity, class and kindness so rare in today’s world,” said Ken Sunshine, who was Dinkins’ first chief of staff.
“He was almost too nice to be mayor of New York,” said Sharpton.
Born July 10, 1927 in Trenton, NJ, young Dinkins and his family moved to Harlem but returned to Trenton to attend high school.
He enrolled at Howard University, although his studies were interrupted by World World II.
He served in the United States Marine Corps before returning to Howard, where he graduated with honors and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
Dinkins married Howard classmate Joyce Burrow and graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1956.
As Dinkins became more involved in Democratic Party politics in New York City, he would form an alliance with three other emerging Harlemites – Charles Rangel, Basil Paterson and Percy Sutton.
They would later become known as the Gang of Four, the most powerful force in the city’s black political establishment, especially in Harlem.
His first big step in politics was winning a seat in the State Assembly in 1965, where he served a term.
The future mayor has started to make a name for himself. He was recognized for helping to create a program that provided state grants to students from low-income families.
Dinkins was appointed chairman of the city’s education council in 1972. Then-mayor Abe Beame then called on Dinkins to become deputy mayor. But Dinkins turned down the job after embarrassing stories surfaced about unpaid taxes, a debt he later paid off.
Dinkins was subsequently appointed to the largely ceremonial post of Town Clerk.
When his pal Sutton resigned as Manhattan Borough President in 1977, Dinkins ran for the job – but lost.
He would lose again, against Andrew Stein in 1981.
But the third time made the charm of Dinkins, elected president of the district in 1985.
Some longtime associates were surprised when Dinkins applied for mayor, describing him as a reluctant warrior.
For much of his political career, Dinkins never spoke of running for mayor, said David Paterson, the son of longtime Dinkins friend Basil Paterson.
“David was very ambitious to become president of the borough. He didn’t have the ambition to become mayor, ”said Paterson.
“Dinkins was kind of pushed into the race against Mayor Ed Koch.
Dinkins was a methodical guy who plowed forward and after pushing supporters he sought the prize – becoming CEO of New York.
It was in 1989.
By this point, Koch had become an unpopular and polarizing figure amid a municipal corruption scandal. And Koch’s energetic personality, pungent humor, and brutal speaking style – once a trump card – had become a liability, especially with minority voters upset by racial disputes and cases of police brutality.
During the Democratic primary, Dinkins presented himself as a stabilizing force and an antidote to the provocative Koch, whom he defeated by nearly 100,000 votes. He was going to beat Giuliani by 50 to 47%.
Dinkins town hall was difficult.
Crime was a major problem. The city was in shock with more than 2,000 murders a year, a crack epidemic and 1 million New Yorkers on welfare following a recession.
The Post expressed the city’s anxious mood with a front-page headline, “Dave, do something”.
Dinkins did it.
He personally lobbied Albany – accompanied by then-President of the Council Peter Vallone – and persuaded the state legislature to approve an income tax surcharge to fund the Safe Streets, Safe City, Cops and Kids ”. The money was used to hire more cops to work on neighborhood patrols.
“Beacon was one of the smart projects he worked on,” Paterson said. “It spawned the idea that charter schools got, to keep kids in school later.”
One of the personal highlights of Dinkins’ tenure was hosting South African leader in New York, Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist who spent 27 years in prison.
“Sometimes even those of us who were his supporters didn’t realize how important Dinkin’s election was. Then he escorted Mandela on stage in Harlem. . . . It was a ‘wow’ moment, ”Paterson said.
Throughout the history of town hall, Dinkins has ruled a fragile and divided city plagued by high crime rates and recovering from a recession.
Perhaps the biggest escape from the Dinkins administration was the late response to the race riots in Crown Heights in 1991.
The unrest erupted after a station wagon driven by a Hasidic driver struck and killed 7-year-old black Gavin Cato. In retaliation, angry black youth assaulted Jewish residents. Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Hasidic scholar, was stabbed to death.
A damning state report concluded that Dinkins “did not act in a timely and decisive manner” and also criticized his police commissioner Lee Brown and for “inadequate” supervision.
“I wish I had challenged the police accounts earlier,” Dinkins said at the time. “The most important lesson is that you have to challenge, cross-examine and question,” he said after the report was released.
The report was released just months before his run for reelection, against Giuliani, a crowd-breaking former US prosecutor. Many believe that Crown Heights ‘mismanagement contributed to Dinkins’ defeat.
Dinkins was originally elected as a healer. But now his critics – including his rival Giuliani – have said he cannot keep the peace and is forgiving of crime.
An earlier racist controversy had already put Dinkins town hall on its heels – a boycott by black activists of a Korean grocery store in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The protests were sparked by a dispute between a black customer and the grocer.
Dinkins worked behind the scenes to try to end the boycott, which lasted for eight months.
“The Crown Heights riot and the boycott of Korean deli Dinkins were handled less competently. The state report on the Crown Heights controversy did it, ”said Professor Doug Muzzio of Baruch College.
Dinkins Town Hall was plagued by another divisive issue: a growing and serious secessionist movement on Staten Island, the city’s whitest and most conservative borough.
The island’s secession ballot question – and when it would appear – was approved by former Governor Mario Cuomo and the state legislature following the town’s objection when Koch was mayor.
Giuliani supporters on Staten Islands stoked secessionist flames as a campaign strategy to increase Giuliani’s turnout.
“The Staten Island secession referendum did not help me. No doubt about it, ”Dinkins told the Post in 2015.
Bill to enact Staten Island secession died in the state legislature – without even a vote – saying it needed approval from the city’s “local government” first .
By this time, Dinkins had been removed from his post and Giuliani was mayor.
To this day, Dinkins’ supporters remain unhappy that he was not re-elected, and have said racial animosity was a factor in his defeat. Others said he deserved more credit for reducing crime, which started with the Safe Streets program.
“The road to a safer city was started under Dinkins. It started the long and difficult road to the present city, ”Sunshine said. “Urban America has gotten better and safer.”
After leaving office, Dinkins joined Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs as a professor of public policy in 1994.
He also continued to engage in activism, as he was arrested for criminal trespassing as part of a public protest in 1999 against the shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo in a 41st hail. bullets fired by four white policemen.
“He was selective. But when he weighed in he had a lot of gravity, ”Sharpton said of Dinkins.
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