Dinkins, David N. (David Norman), 1927-2020

David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author. A member of the Democratic Party, he notably served as the 106th Mayor of New York City, the first African American to hold the position, from 1990 to 1993.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was raised there and in Harlem, graduating from Trenton Central High School before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. After his service, Dinkins graduated cum laude from Howard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1950 and earned an LL.B. degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1956. While maintaining a private law practice from 1956 to 1975, Dinkins rose through the Democratic Party organization in Harlem, beginning at the Carver Democratic Club. Dinkins briefly represented the 78th District of the New York State Assembly in 1966. From 1972 to 1973, he was president of the New York City Board of Elections. He was nominated as a deputy mayor by Mayor Abraham D. Beame but was ultimately not appointed, instead serving as city clerk from 1975 to 1985. He was elected Manhattan borough president in 1985 on his third run for that office. On November 7, 1989, Dinkins was elected mayor of New York City, defeating three-term incumbent mayor Ed Koch and two others in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee Rudy Giuliani in the general election.

As Mayor, Dinkins was responsible for the establishment of numerous widely heralded cultural staples such as Fashion Week, Restaurant Week, and Broadway on Broadway. His administration initiated the revitalization of Times Square and secured an unprecedented deal to keep the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York for the next 99 years. This arrangement generated more annual financial benefits to the city than the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, and Rangers combined. Mayor Dinkins also instituted “Safe Streets, Safe City: Cops and Kids,” a comprehensive criminal justice plan that expanded opportunities for the children of New York and continued to reduce crime in the years that followed his term. In 1993, Dinkins lost to Republican Rudy Giuliani in a rematch of the 1989 election.

From 1994 until his death, Dinkins was a professor of professional practice at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Dinkins' radio program Dialogue with Dinkins aired on WLIB radio in New York City from 1994 to 2014. His memoirs, A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic, written with Peter Knobler, were published in 2013. Though he never attempted a political comeback, Dinkins remained somewhat active as an éminence grise in municipal politics. On November 23, 2020, just over a month after the death of his wife, Joyce Dinkins, David Dinkins died from unspecified natural causes at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.