By Reuters Staff
FILE PHOTO: Former Mayor of New York City, David Dinkins, attends Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address in New York City, U.S. January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
(Reuters) – David Dinkins, who served as New York Citys first and only African American mayor during the 1990s, died on Monday. He was 93.
Dinkins health aide found him unresponsive in his apartment Monday night, NBC New York and the New York Post reported, citing sources. His passing was confirmed to Reuters by a source.
Dinkins was born in 1927 in Trenton, New Jersey. He attended Howard University and Brooklyn Law School.
He eventually came to Harlem, the historically Black neighborhood in upper Manhattan, where he rose in the ranks of local politics.
In Harlem, Dinkins formed part of a group of Black power brokers, known as the Gang of Four, that also included Congressman Charles Rangel, Percy Sutton and Basil Paterson, the father of future New York Governor David Paterson.
In the 1989 mayors race, Dinkins defeated the three-term incumbent Democrat Mayor Ed Koch, and Rudy Giuliani, a Republican prosecutor who would come back to defeat Dinkins four years later.
I extend my deepest condolences to the family of Mayor David Dinkins, and to the many New Yorkers who loved and supported him, Giuliani said on Twitter. He gave a great deal of his life in service to our great City.read more
Former NY City Mayor David Dinkins dies at 93 – reports – Reuters UK
