New York's first and only black mayor, David Dinkins, has died at the age of 93, US media reported Tuesday, November 24.
This Democrat was mayor of New York from 1990 to 1993 after winning against Rudy Giuliani and Edward Koch.
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His tenure had been marked by racial and anti-Semitic disturbances, notably in 1991 in Crown Heights, in the borough of Brooklyn, and the death of a Jewish student.
David Dinkins, who had inherited a city hit by racism, poverty and violence, came under heavy criticism at the time for his alleged inability to perform his duties.
Born in 1927 in Trenton, New Jersey (northeast), he died of natural causes at his home less than two months after the death of his wife Joyce, The
New York Times reported
.
In a city under stress, in April 1989 five youths were wrongly accused of raping and injuring 28-year-old white jogger Trisha Meili in Central Park.
They had filed a complaint against New York City and obtained redress.
A few months later, a black teenager, Yusuf Hawkins, was killed by a group of white youths in Brooklyn.
A million New Yorkers were receiving survival allowances at the time, and a thousand murders were recorded each year in New York.
Crack had landed in the city and was wreaking havoc.
David Dinkins was the head of one of the most open town halls in New York's history, including many women, the first Puerto Rican to head the city's fire department and an openly gay black psychiatrist as head of the Mental Health.
Known for his fancy dress and politeness, Mr. Denkins was considered "
too nice
" to run and run a city like New York.
Defeated in the municipal elections by Rudy Giuliani after only one term, Mr Dinkins declared: “
My friends, what we have done has been historic.
No one can take it away from us
”.