By James J. Barney
Professor of Legal Studies, School of Security and Global Studies, American Public University
David Dinkins, the first and the only African American mayor of New York City to date, died on November 23, only weeks after the passing of his wife, Joyce. Dinkins’ death marks the sad end of a bygone era in New York City, the loss of an unsung leader of both the Black freedom and LGBTQ movements. Dinkins was the embodiment of servant political leadership sorely lacking in the current era.
Dinkins Confronted a Divided City
Class, race, religion, and nationality divided New York City during the 1980s and 1990s. Dinkins acknowledged this reality in nearly every one of his speeches as he described the city as a “beautiful mosaic” rather than a “melting pot.” Back in the 1980s, neighborhoods had real borders, separating people from each other, often among racial lines.
As a mayoral candidate, Dinkins promised to heal the racial tensions left by his predecessor, Ed Koch. Koch, who served three terms was Dinkins’ popular opposite. Brass and often crass, Mayor Koch was a larger-than-life character who faced several racial flashpoints, including the death of a young Black man in Howard Beach caused by a group of white youths and the trial of several African American and Hispanic youths for the rape of a white woman in Central Park.
As Mayor, Dinkins was a classy but soft-spoken and reserved man, who tried his best to make good on his promises. Unfortunately, a host of factors mostly beyond his control stymied Dinkins’ best efforts. Those factors included a recession, a tabloid press that sought to agitate racial tensions to sell newspapers, the nearly daily presence of hypercritical Rudy Giuliani on the political scene and a large segment of the White population which would not give a black man a chance to govern.
Dinkins Confronted Latent and Overt Racism
While New York City often touts its cosmopolitan nature, Dinkins’ treatment by large segments of Gotham society marks a shameful stain on the city’s history. The racism that Dinkins confronted was both overt and latent. The racial animosity came from all corners of the city and across the political spectrum. That racial animosity played some unmeasurable role in Giuliani’s 1993 victory over Dinkins. The racism of the era must be acknowledged and not excused away, as Dinkins’ past and present critics often do.
Dinkins confronted overt and shameful racism similar to what he found in the Jim Crow South in the 1950s and 1960s when he was often the object of racial abuse. He also confronted a more subtle form of racism while he was in Gracie Mansion, home to the city’s mayors. His actions were held to a higher and often unfair standard of scrutiny. Dinkins was often wrongfully blamed for a collection of pre-existing problems, including the city’s crime rates and generational decline, as well as other problems largely outside his control such as demographic and economic trends.
Dinkins Also Faced a Recession and the AIDS Crisis
Dinkins also faced a collection of problems that made New York City nearly ungovernable. The city was especially hard hit by a recession that started just as Dinkins entered office in 1990. New York was the East Coast epicenter of the AIDS crisis, and many of its neighborhoods were battlegrounds for violent and bloody crack wars of the era.
Dinkins confronted these problems with little support from Albany or Washington, D.C. He faced opposition from many segments in New York society who did not want to see him to succeed, in part, because he was a Black man.
A Modest Politician
While Dinkins was the first African American mayor, it would be a mistake to attribute his political victory solely to the electoral power of African American voters. In New York, African Americans have never constituted a majority of the population, yet Dinkins was able to forge a multiracial coalition from various parts of the city’s population.
Even though Dinkins never obtained the support of a majority of white voters, a sizeable percentage of whites, around 30 to 40%, did cross racial lines and cast their ballot for Dinkins in both 1989 and 1993. That change illustrated that the city’s racial landscape was more complex than the simple “Black versus White” tabloid media portrayals of the era.
Despite often being wrongfully accused by his critics of worsening race relations in the city, Dinkins’ leadership avoided the large-scale unrest that followed the innocent verdict in the Rodney King case in 1992.
Dinkins served only one term as mayor, failing to win reelection in 1993. However, his victory over Koch, who was seeking his fourth term in office, in a Democratic primary in 1989 represents one of the era’s most significant political upsets.
In winning, Dinkins created a political coalition modeled on Jesse Jackson’s 1988 Rainbow Coalition. In 2008, President Barack Obama would forge a political alliance that drew inspiration from the multiracial coalitions created by Dinkins and Jackson.
A Brief Encounter with Dinkins in 2019
Many historians do not get the opportunity to sit down with the subject of their research. I was blessed with this rare opportunity in October 2019, when I had the great honor to sit down with Mayor Dinkins for what was to be a single, off-the-record one-hour interview in his office at Columbia University as part of the process of writing my Ph.D. dissertation.
My dissertation explores how Dinkins struggled with a series of flashpoints that included a deep recession, the AIDS, crime, and crack cocaine epidemics, racial tension of the era, and secession efforts in Staten Island. I was particularly interested in how he tried but ultimately failed to hold together his fragile political coalition. At this meeting, I had the opportunity to explore Dinkins’ decision-making and motivations, in what I can only describe as one of the highlights of my academic and personal life.
Admitting Mistakes Is a Strength, Not a Weakness
In the popular narrative, Dinkins has often been labeled as a “failed mayor” who presided over a crime-ridden city in decline, but the picture is more complex. While it is true that murder rates spiked during Dinkins’ term, crime rates also spiked as the United States confronted a crack epidemic. And while there was a perception that the origins of New York City’s decline began during the Dinkins administration, the truth is that decades-long decline started in the1960s and hit its nadir during the dark days of the 1970s, long before Dinkins took office.
After leaving office, Dinkins readily admitted that he had made a series of political decisions that he viewed as mistakes, including his support for tougher drug laws and aggressive policing of high crime areas. In explaining his mistakes, Dinkins described how he “just sought to do the right thing.”
These policies, he noted, also were supported by many in the African American community at the time who complained of too little police presence on their streets. However, Dinkins admitted that his “get tough on crime” policies did long-term damage to the African American communities.
Even if his decisions proved wrong in retrospect, Dinkins justified them as the product of his desire to serve the best interests of all New Yorkers, representing an example of servant leadership often lacking at the present moment. None of Dinkins’ admissions were ground-breaking as he had made them often before in speeches and interviews. What was surprising was his complete willingness to admit his errors and to walk through what in retrospect was the admittedly flawed decision-making that cost him votes.
Some politicians seek office to fulfill their ambitions for power. However, Dinkins repeatedly stated that in many ways he had stumbled into his role as mayor and was shocked that he won the 1989 election.
He repeatedly attributed his electoral victory to the political skills of his long-time political advisor and friend William Lynch, Jr. and to luck. His humbleness and repeated efforts to mitigate his impressive political accomplishments and his mistakes stand in stark contrast to the type of political leadership often found today.
An Unsung Leader in Black Freedom and LGBT Movements
As I talked with Dinkins, I noticed many photos of some of the leading people of the 20th century, a virtual Who’s Who of world, national and local history. There were pictures of Nelson Mandala and Jackie Robinson, icons of the Black freedom movement. While not often named among the groundbreakers of the movement, given his political achievements, Dinkins rightfully deserves a place among such icons, due to the transformative power of his electoral successes as Manhattan Borough president and then as mayor.
In addition to his role in the Black freedom movement, Dinkins stood against overwhelming public opinion at the time and bravely marched with Irish gays and lesbians in New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, sought to treat humanely those with AIDS, introduced a curriculum in the New York City Public Schools that taught tolerance and acceptance of sexual differences, and created a registry for the recognition of same-sex civil unions.
At the time, his actions were often criticized as half-measures and inadequate by some and radical by others. Still, these were politically dangerous, and bold decisions came at a time when support for LGBTQ rights in New York City was unpopular in most quarters.
Love for Family and New York City
Most importantly, Dinkins shared his great love for New York City, the Brooklyn Dodgers, his wife and his children in our talk. In our conversation, I came to realize that Dinkins was a man who may have been simply “too good” and “decent” for New York City of the 1980s and 1990s or even today. Dinkins was preceded and was followed by what some may consider crass, vulgar, and dysfunctional men who engaged in the type of self-promotion that Dinkins found objectionable.
His failure to engage in the kind of behavior that New Yorkers expected or had grown accustomed to in their politicians was wrongfully viewed by many New Yorkers as evidence of aloofness or weakness rather than of his fundamental decency.
His passing provides an opportunity for the city to reflect upon its past racial injustices and troubled racial history and chart a new future where skin color becomes an irrelevant, not a defining, characteristic of a person’s biography.
About the Author
James J. Barney grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and he was a student at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, when Dinkins served his single term as Mayor from 1989 to 1993. Barney is currently a Professor of Legal Studies as well as a Ph.D. candidate in history at The University of Memphis, where he is writing his dissertation on the politics of New York City during the Dinkins era.
