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David Dinkins is elected mayor of New York City.
1989 (Nov 7)
David Dinkins, the sixty-two-year-old president of the borough of Manhattan, was elected mayor of New York City, becoming the first Black to occupy that office. Dinkins, a Democrat, won a narrow victory over the Republican challenger, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and two other candidates. Dinkins captured approximately 898,000 votes to Giuliani's 856,450. After defeating Democratic mayor Edward I. Koch in the primary election on September 12, Dinkins ran a moderate campaign designed to soothe, not excite. His campaign theme was an appeal to the city's ethnic diversity, which he termed a gorgeous mosaic. Some analysts, however, including the New York Times, claimed that Dinkins's solutions to New York's problems were often simple. For example, Dinkins's answer to the city's massive crime problem was to "double community patrol officers and put a cop on every subway train." Despite the city's recent racial troubles, sparked by the killings of Black men in predominately white neighborhoods, Dinkins was able to build a biracial coalition that carried him to victory. At the time of the election, only 25.2 percent of New York City's eight million people were Black. Dinkins's mayoral campaign was also threatened by accusations of personal financial laxity and his friendship with former Democratic presidential candidate Jesse L. Jackson. Voters apparently overlooked his fumbling on questions about his personal finances, while Jackson failed to return to New York after the primary election. Dinkins, a former marine, entered local politics in the 1950s as a Democratic precinct leader. In 1965, he was elected to the state senate. Dinkins also served as city clerk in New York City before running for president of the borough of Manhattan in 1977. In his first two campaigns for this office, Dinkins lost by wide margins, but finally secured the office in 1985.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.