David Dinkins

Before entering politics, Dinkins served in the U.S. Marine Corps, graduated cum laude from Howard University, and received a law degree from Brooklyn Law School. He served as Manhattan borough president before becoming mayor. Under the Dinkins administration, crime in New York City decreased more dramatically and more rapidly than at any time in previous New York City history.

After leaving office Dinkins was named professor of public affairs at Columbia University. Dinkins was a member of the Board of Directors of the United States Tennis Association, and a member of The Jazz Foundation of America. He serves on the boards of the New York City Global Partners, the Children's Health Fund (CHF), the Association to Benefit Children and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF). Dinkins is also on the Advisory Board of Independent News & Media and the Black Leadership Forum, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

Dinkins rose through the Democratic Party organization in Harlem, beginning at the Carver Democratic Club under the aegis of J. Raymond Jones, and became part of an influential group of African American politicians that included Denny Farrell, Percy Sutton, Basil Paterson, and Charles Rangel; the latter three together with Dinkins were known as the "Gang of Four". As an investor, Dinkins was one of fifty African American investors who helped Percy Sutton found Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in 1971.

Dinkins was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1966. He was nominated as a Deputy Mayor by Mayor Abraham D. Beame but was ultimately not appointed. Dinkins was President of the Board of Elections from 1972 to 1973, and City Clerk from 1975 to 1985. He was elected Manhattan borough president in 1985 on his third run for that office. Dinkins was elected mayor of New York City on November 7, 1989, defeating three-term incumbent mayor Ed Koch and two others in the Democratic primary and Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani in the general election. Dinkins came to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, seeking his blessing and endorsement.

Dinkins was elected in the wake of a corruption scandal that involved several New York City Democratic leaders. Mayor Koch, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was politically damaged by the corruption in his administration and his handling of racial issues, and among the candidates Dinkins was his greatest challenger. Additionally, the fact that Dinkins is African American helped him to avoid criticism that he was ignoring the black vote by campaigning to whites. While a large turnout of African American voters was important to his election, Dinkins campaigned throughout the city. Dinkins' campaign manager was political consultant William Lynch, Jr., who became one of his First Deputy Mayors.