David Dinkins: “A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic”

“Who would believe New York would elect a black mayor?” writes David N. Dinkins in his new memoir, reflecting on first considering running in 1988. Only twenty years before we elected an African American president, a black mayor of New York City was unthinkable. There had been transformative elections of African American mayors in other cities: Richard Hatcher in Gary, IN; Carl Stokes in Cleveland, OH; Harold Washington in Chicago, IL; Wilson Goode in Philadelphia, PA; Harvey Gantt in Charlotte, NC; and Kurt Schmoke in Baltimore, MD. New York was on the cusp of making history as well.