New York’s first black mayor David Dinkins remembered as ‘a warrior’ in tribute to Harlem

Dinkins was elected mayor in 1989 after two high-profile racist cases unfolded under Mayor Ed Koch’s previous administration: the death and rape of a white jogger in Central Park and the prejudiced murder of a teenager black at Bensonhurst. He then lost his re-election to Rudy Giuliani in 1993.

“There is a generation of people who believed they could make a difference because they saw David Dinkins do it first. He has a human heritage. You can feel right here in this room,” said Mayor Bill. de Blasio, who worked in the Dinkins administration. and attended the event with New York’s First Lady Chirlane McCray.

At the start of the Dinkins administration, the newly released Nelson Mandela made New York his first stop in the United States in 1990. Dinkins had long been an outspoken critic of apartheid South Africa.

Former Congressman Charles Rangel, who was part of Harlem’s influential African-American political coalition known as the “Gang of Four” alongside Dinkins, attended the tribute on Saturday and said the One of Dinkins’ “greatest feelings of pride was to convince Nelson Mandela to come to Harlem.”

De Blasio said “they helped Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. They treated him like the head of state he was meant to be.”

“This city by honoring Nelson Mandela has changed the world,” he added.

De Blasio also thanked Dinkins for his efforts in setting up the Beacon and after school youth programs. “He said if we are to be safe there has to be after school programs.”

McCray, who also worked under Dinkins as a member of the Human Rights Commission and speechwriter, said that if his “heart is heavy because he is no longer with us, I cannot prevent me from feeling immense joy at having known him. “

“He found joy in the work he did,” said McCray. “This joy has generated, energy and enthusiasm, to fight for safe streets, new community centers, to keep our public libraries open six days a week for Beacon schools, for our children.”

Dinkins has invested a large amount of resources in Bradhurst, a neighborhood 40 blocks north of Harlem, and worked with local churches and nonprofits to revive the decaying neighborhood. He also helped set up a supermarket on Harlem’s 125th Street at a time when revitalizing the area seemed like an elusive dream. This street is now the backbone of Harlem’s economy.

“David Dinkins was a fist fight for what was right,” Sharpton said.

During his one tenure as mayor, Dinkins rebuilt more low-income housing and neighborhoods in the city than his successor Giuliani did in two terms as the economy was in better shape, the New reported. York Times. His administration also helped provide assisted housing for the mentally ill, working with then-governor Mario Cuomo, effectively establishing a model that would be adopted nationally. The shelter population has fallen to its lowest level in the past 30 years under his tenure.

Dinkins administration officials played a pivotal role in the revitalization of Times Square, convincing Walt Disney Corp. to rehabilitate a theater on 42nd Street. Dinkins also hired more police officers and raised taxes as part of his “Safe Streets, Safe City” plan to tackle the soaring murder rate in New York City.

“In his first and only term in office he faced multiple crises that this city had not seen in years,” including unprecedented homicide rates, stubborn unemployment and mismanagement of a riot in Brooklyn, said New York Assembly member Inez Dickens. during the event, adding that Dinkins faced these crises as “a warrior who knew how to fight without picking up a weapon.”

“His words were his bullets and we have to learn from them today,” she said.