November 7, 1989: New York Elects Its 1st Black Mayor

November 7, 1989: David Dinkins, President of the Borough of Manhattan, is elected the 1st black Mayor of New York City. A Democrat, he wins a close election over the Republican nominee, former U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, 50 percent to 48, a margin of 47,080 votes. Dinkins won Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn, while Giuliani won Queens and Staten Island. This followed Dinkins' defeat of the 3-term incumbent, Ed Koch, in the Democratic Primary, 50 percent to 42.

Jim Florio, a Congressman representing the Philadelphia suburbs of South Jersey, is elected Governor of New Jersey. In a landslide, the Democrat gets 61 percent of the vote to defeat Jim Courter, also in the House, whose District included my hometown of East Brunswick.

It was his 3rd try. He had lost the Democratic Primary in 1977. In 1981, with Governor Brendan Byrne, a Democrat, term-limited, Florio won the Democratic nomination, but lost the general election to Tom Kean, the Speaker of the State Assembly, by 1,797 votes, the closest election in the office's history. It was so close, the State Constitution required an automatic recount. For over a week, we didn't know who the next Governor was going to be. I remember seeing the State flag flying upside-down at a McDonald's, and my mother said it was a reflection of the "upside-down election."

Kean was easily re-elected in 1985, and Florio was too smart to challenge him. After 2 terms, Kean was term-limited, and couldn't run again. Florio had collected so many "political IOUs" over the years, the nomination was easily his. Courter owed his career not just to President Ronald Reagan, who was now out of office, but to a gerrymandered, pro-Republican district (which has since been redrawn to favor a Democrat). Outside of his district, Courter didn't have name recognition, and he won only 5 out of 21 Counties, while Florio got 61 percent of the vote.

Oddly, Dinkins and Florio had grown up in each other's jurisdiction: Dinkins was born and raised in New Jersey's capital city, Trenton, and went to Trenton Central High School; while Florio was born and raised in Brooklyn, and went to Erasmus Hall High School.

The same day, Doug Wilder, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, is elected the 1st black Governor of any State since Reconstruction. In a very close election, by 6,741 votes, he defeats Marshall Coleman, a former Attorney General of the State.

None of these 3 victorious Democrats would serve a 2nd term. Governors of Virginia are limited to 1 term, although Wilder would return to public life, being elected Mayor of Richmond, the State capital and his hometown. In 1993, both Dinkins and Florio would lose close and very nasty races for re-election, the former in a rematch with Giuliani, the latter to Somerset County Freeholder Christine Todd Whitman.

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November 7, 1989, like all modern Election Days in America, was a Tuesday. Major league pitcher Sonny Gray was born.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek: There were 9 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Miami Heat, 83-77 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 118-114 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons, 117-114 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 40 points.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 106-100 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 109-86 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 111-107 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. James Worthy scored 35 points.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 118-94 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks, 96-94 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Charlotte Hornets, 128-88 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders, 5-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

September 16, 1992: The Giuliani Police Riot

September 16, 1992: Thousands of off-duty police officers crowd in front of New York’s City Hall to protest against Mayor David Dinkins.

The cops were there to oppose a bill that would have removed the police from the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, an oversight body that handled allegations of police misconduct, and, crucially, would have made it independent of the Police Department itself. Faced with the prospect of potentially greater civilian accountability, New York City police officers took their anger to the streets.

"The cops held up several of the most crude drawings of Dinkins, black, performing perverted sex acts," Jimmy Breslin, the great New York newspaper columnist then working for Newsday, who was present at the riot, wrote. "'Now you got a n****r right inside City Hall,' one officer reportedly said," Breslin continued. "'How do you like that? A n****r mayor.'" Other officers chanted slogans like "Dinkins gotta go!" and "The mayor's on crack!"

"The mayor doesn’t know why the morale of the New York City Police Department is so low," he said, jabbing his finger in the air. "He blames it on me, he blames it on you. The reason the morale of the Police Department of the City of New York is so low is one reason and one reason alone: David Dinkins!"

Giuliani had risen to fame in the mid-1980s, as a U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, prosecuting criminals both low-class, like the Mafia, and high-class, like Wall Street insider traders. He ran for Mayor in 1989, and it was close: Dinkins, then the Borough President of Manhattan, won 50.4 percent of the vote, while Giuliani won 47.8. Dinkins' margin of victory was 47,080, and he became the City's 1st black Mayor.

Crime, rising in New York ever since World War II, peaked in 1990, then started to go down. But events such as the Crown Heights riot of 1991, and the New York media's twisting of events to favor their conservative owners, made Dinkins look like he didn't care about white people. In 1993, Giuliani won a rematch, getting 49.2 percent of the vote, Dinkins 46.4. Giuliani won by 53,367 votes, becoming the City's 1st Republican Mayor elected since John Lindsay in 1965, and its 1st Italian Mayor since Fiorello La Guardia was last elected in 1941.

What made the difference? Giuliani gained 28,000 votes in Brooklyn, 26,000 in Staten Island, 21,000 in Manhattan, 17,000 in Queens, and 8,000 in The Bronx. So it was a Republican get-out-the-vote effort in Staten Island, the whitest, most conservative Borough; but it was also fear of white liberals in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In particular, Jewish votes in both of those Boroughs shifted. Giuliani particularly pandered to Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, led by State Senator Dov Hikind, officially a Democrat, but a very conservative man.

Giuliani never acknowledged or condemned the racism of the 1992 police riot. And his Administration, from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2001, would have some notorious examples of police brutality. After leaving office, without having to face the voters again, he drifted even further to the right, eventually providing legal counsel for Donald Trump, causing him, as of September 16, 2022, to need legal counsel of his own.

UPDATE: As Jamelle Bouie put it in a column for the August 18, 2023 edition of The New York Times, "The line from 'America's mayor' to indicted co-conspirator is a straight one. The answer to What happened to Rudy Giuliani? is Nothing happened. He is the same man he’s always been."

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September 16, 1992 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 9-6 at Yankee Stadium. Don Mattingly went 3-for-5, but Sterling Hitchcock was knocked out of the box in the 3rd inning. and Curt Young barely finished the 5th.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-4 at Shea Stadium.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Barry Bonds went 2-for-5.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bob Zupcic grounded into a fielder's choice to get the winning run home in the bottom of the 15th inning. Wade Boggs did not play. Paul Molitor went 3-for-7 with an RBI, but Robin Yount went 0-for-5 with 2 walks.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-0 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Mike Mussina pitched a 4-hit shutout. Cal Ripken went 3-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers, 4-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-9 at Wrigley Field in Chicaog.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.

* And the California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Luis Sojo singled home the winning run in the top of the 13th inning. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4 with a walk, and was hit with a pitch.