Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins dies at 93: police
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[November 24, 2020]
By Derek Francis
(Reuters) - David Dinkins, who served as
New York City's first and only African American mayor during the 1990s,
died on Monday at the age of 93, police said.
His death appeared to be of natural causes, Detective Adam Navarro of
the city's police department told Reuters.
Born in 1927 in Trenton, New Jersey, Dinkins attended Howard University
and Brooklyn Law School.
He eventually came to Harlem, the historically Black neighborhood in
upper Manhattan, where he rose in the ranks of local politics.
"For decades, Mayor Dinkins lead with compassion and an unparalleled
commitment to our communities," state attorney general Letitia James
said in a statement. "New York will mourn Mayor Dinkins and continue to
be moved by his towering legacy."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Nov/24/images/ads/current/burtonview_coop_sdadaily_FFARM_2020.png)
In Harlem, Dinkins formed part of a group of Black power brokers, known
as the "Gang of Four," that included Congressman Charles Rangel, Percy
Sutton and Basil Paterson, the father of future New York Governor David
Paterson.
Dinkins defeated the three-term incumbent Democrat Mayor Ed Koch and
Republican prosecutor Rudy Giuliani in the 1989 mayoral race.
Giuliani, who would come back to defeat Dinkins four years later, was
among the first to pay tributes.
"I extend my deepest condolences to the family of Mayor David Dinkins,
and to the many New Yorkers who loved and supported him," Giuliani said
on Twitter. "He gave a great deal of his life in service to our great
City."
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![](../images/112420PIX/news_f11.jpg)
Former Mayor of New York City, David Dinkins, attends Governor
Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address in New York City, U.S.
January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
New York, during Dinkins' term, was battling high crime, a fierce
economic recession and the AIDS epidemic.
But it was his role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot that would most
define his mayoralty.
The riot was sparked in the racially divided Brooklyn neighborhood
by the acquittal of a young black man, Lemrick Nelson, in the
killing of Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Jewish student.
Speaking in 2011, Dinkins remembered his handling of the riot as one
of his chief regrets.
"The thing that hurt the most, I suppose, was to be accused by some
of permitting — holding the police back — and permitting young
blacks to attack Jews," Dinkins said, according to the New York
Times.
"And this was untrue, inaccurate and not so, and that’s kind of
painful. But if I had it to do over again, I would have said maybe
24 hours earlier to the police, ‘What you’re doing isn’t working,’
which I finally said."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Nov/24/images/ads/current/ldn_medical_directory_small2.png)
(Reporting by Derek Francis; additional reporting by Radhika
Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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