New York City’s first Black mayor, David Dinkins, dies at 93
Associated PressNEW YORK — Few American leaders have faced the battery of urban ills that confronted David Dinkins when he became New York City’s first Black mayor in 1990. 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.” But the city he inherited had an ugly side, too, and Dinkins’ low-key, considered approach quickly came to be perceived as a flaw. “Dave, Do Something!” screamed one New York Post headline in 1990, Dinkins’ first year in office. “That service is respected and honored by all.” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who herself shattered barriers as the state’s first Black woman elected to statewide office, said the example Dinkins set inspired her throughout her own political career.
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