Dinkins, David

Dinkins, David

(1927– ) mayor; born in Trenton, N.J. Trained as a lawyer, he rose slowly and quietly in New York City's Democratic Party political machine until he was elected mayor of New York City (1990–93). As the city's first African-American mayor, he was particularly stung by charges of insensitivity to the city's racial problems and of inaction on other problems confronting the city's poor, but he persisted on his own slow, quiet course.