Dinkins, NYC's first Black mayor, dies

1 term marked by unrest, crime, but also by police hiring, Times Square cleanup

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 28, 1993, file photo, President Bill Clinton holds up four fingers signifying four more years as he appears at a Democratic Unity Rally in support of Mayor David Dinkins, right, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 28, 1993, file photo, President Bill Clinton holds up four fingers signifying four more years as he appears at a Democratic Unity Rally in support of Mayor David Dinkins, right, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)

NEW YORK -- David Dinkins, who broke barriers as New York City's first Black 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. He was 93.

Dinkins' death Monday was confirmed by his assistant at Columbia University, where he taught after leaving office, and by Mayor Bill de Blasio, his onetime aide. The former mayor's death occurred just weeks after the death of his wife, Joyce, who died in October at the age of 89.

Dinkins, a calm and courtly figure with a penchant for tennis and formalwear, was a dramatic shift from both his predecessor, Ed Koch, and his successor, Rudy Giuliani -- two combative and often abrasive politicians in a city with a world-class reputation for impatience and rudeness.

In his inaugural address, he spoke lovingly of New York as a "gorgeous mosaic of race and religious faith, of national origin and sexual orientation, of individuals whose families arrived yesterday and generations ago, coming through Ellis Island or Kennedy Airport or on buses bound for the Port Authority."

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But the city he inherited had an ugly side, too.

AIDS, guns and crack cocaine killed thousands of people each year. Unemployment soared. Homelessness was rampant. The city faced a $1.5 billion budget deficit.

Dinkins' low-key, considered approach quickly came to be perceived as a flaw. Critics said he was too soft and too slow.

Dinkins did a lot at City Hall. He raised taxes to hire thousands of police officers. He spent billions of dollars revitalizing neglected housing. His administration got the Walt Disney Corp. to invest in the cleanup of then-seedy Times Square.

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

"David Dinkins believed that we could be better, believed we could overcome our divisions," de Blasio said Tuesday. "He showed us what it was like to be a gentleman, to be a kind person no matter what was thrown at him. And a lot was thrown at him."

Dinkins didn't get fast enough results from his efforts, though, to earn a second term.

After beating Giuliani by only 47,000 votes out of 1.75 million cast in 1989, Dinkins lost a rematch by roughly the same margin in 1993.

Political historians often trace the defeat to Dinkins' handling of the Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn in 1991.

The violence began after a car in the motorcade of an Orthodox Jewish religious leader struck and killed 7-year-old Gavin Cato, who was Black. During the three days of anti-Jewish rioting by young Black men that followed, a rabbinical student was fatally stabbed. Nearly 190 people were hurt.

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

In a 2013 memoir, Dinkins accused the Police Department of letting the disturbance get out of hand, and also took a share of the blame, on the grounds that "the buck stopped with me." But he bitterly blamed his election defeat on prejudice: "I think it was just racism, pure and simple."

Born in Trenton, N.J., on July 10, 1927, Dinkins moved with his mother to Harlem when his parents divorced, but returned to his hometown to attend high school. There, he learned an early lesson in discrimination: Black people were not allowed to use the school swimming pool.

But, while attending Howard University, the historically Black university in Washington, D.C., Dinkins said he gained admission to segregated movie theaters by wearing a turban and faking a foreign accent.

Back in New York with a degree in mathematics, Dinkins married his college sweetheart, Joyce Burrows, in 1953. His father-in-law, a power in local Democratic politics, channeled Dinkins into a Harlem political club. Dinkins paid his dues as a Democratic functionary while earning a degree from Brooklyn Law School, and then went into private practice.

He was elected to the state Assembly in 1965, became the first Black president of the city's Board of Elections in 1972 and went on to serve as Manhattan borough president before becoming mayor.

One of Dinkins' last mayoral acts in 1993 was to sign an agreement with the U.S. Tennis Association that gave the organization a 99-year lease on city land in Queens in return for building a tennis complex. That deal guaranteed that the U.S. Open would remain in New York City for decades.

After leaving office, Dinkins was a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Dinkins is survived by his son, David Jr., daughter, Donna, and two grandchildren.

Information for this story was contributed by David B. Caruso, Karen Matthews and Larry McShane of the Associated Press.

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 1, 1990, file photo, Mayor David Dinkins, left, gets a hug from South African Bishop Desmond Tutu after Dinkins was sworn-in as New York City's first Black mayor, at inaugural ceremonies at City Hall in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Frankie Ziths, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 1, 1990, file photo, Mayor David Dinkins, left, gets a hug from South African Bishop Desmond Tutu after Dinkins was sworn-in as New York City's first Black mayor, at inaugural ceremonies at City Hall in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Frankie Ziths, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 2, 1990, file photo, David Dinkins delivers his first speech as mayor of New York, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Frankie Ziths, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 2, 1990, file photo, David Dinkins delivers his first speech as mayor of New York, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Frankie Ziths, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 18, 1992, file photo, jazz great Cab Calloway, center, jokes with New York City Mayor David Dinkins, left, and Grammy organizer Jonathan Tisch while riding a specially designated subway train from Harlem to Radio City Music Hall as part of the Grammy Week festivities in New York. New York's subway system was immortalized in the Duke Ellington classic "Take the 'A' Train." Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 18, 1992, file photo, jazz great Cab Calloway, center, jokes with New York City Mayor David Dinkins, left, and Grammy organizer Jonathan Tisch while riding a specially designated subway train from Harlem to Radio City Music Hall as part of the Grammy Week festivities in New York. New York's subway system was immortalized in the Duke Ellington classic "Take the 'A' Train." Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1989, file photo, Democratic candidate David Dinkins and his wife, Joyce, give thumbs-up to supporters after he won the mayoral race in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1989, file photo, Democratic candidate David Dinkins and his wife, Joyce, give thumbs-up to supporters after he won the mayoral race in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 21, 1997, file photo, former New York Mayor David Dinkins, center, marches at the front of the 29th annual African-American Day Parade in Harlem flanked by Al Sharpton, left, and Ruth Messinger, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Michael Schmelling, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 21, 1997, file photo, former New York Mayor David Dinkins, center, marches at the front of the 29th annual African-American Day Parade in Harlem flanked by Al Sharpton, left, and Ruth Messinger, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Michael Schmelling, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins speaks during a ceremony to rename the Manhattan Municipal Building to the David N. Dinkins Building, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins speaks during a ceremony to rename the Manhattan Municipal Building to the David N. Dinkins Building, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, right, and his wife, Joyce Dinkins, stand at attention as they listen to "The Star-Spangled Banner," during a ceremony renaming the Manhattan Municipal Building to the David N. Dinkins Building, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, right, and his wife, Joyce Dinkins, stand at attention as they listen to "The Star-Spangled Banner," during a ceremony renaming the Manhattan Municipal Building to the David N. Dinkins Building, in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, and former Mayor David Dinkins unveil a plaque renaming the Manhattan Municipal Building to the David N. Dinkins Building, during a ceremony in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, and former Mayor David Dinkins unveil a plaque renaming the Manhattan Municipal Building to the David N. Dinkins Building, during a ceremony in New York. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, July 1, 2014, file photo, senator and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker bows as he shakes hands with former New York City Mayor David Dinkins as they attend a ceremony for the swearing-in of Newark Mayor-elect Ras J. Baraka, in Newark N.J. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, July 1, 2014, file photo, senator and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker bows as he shakes hands with former New York City Mayor David Dinkins as they attend a ceremony for the swearing-in of Newark Mayor-elect Ras J. Baraka, in Newark N.J. Dinkins, New York City’s first African-American mayor, died Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. He was 93. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

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