Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins dies at 93

Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins dies at 93

[NFA] David Dinkins, who served as New York City's first and only African American mayor during the 1990s, died on Monday at the age of 93, police said.

This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.

David Dinkins, New York City's first and only African-American mayor, has died at the age of 93.

His death on Monday appeared to be of natural causes, according to a detective with the city's police department.

Born in 1927 in Trenton, New Jersey, Dinkins, the son of a barber and domestic worker, attended Howard University and Brooklyn Law School.

He eventually landed in Harlem, where he rose in the ranks of local politics and in 1989 he broke the color barrier for the city's highest office by defeating the three-term incumbent Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, in the primary and Republican prosecutor Rudy Giuliani in the general election.

Dinkins ran on a platform promising to tackle the racial strife that had polarized the city, but during his term New York was plagued by a number of problems, including high crime, an economic recession and the AIDS epidemic.

But it was his handling the 1991 Crown Heights riot that would most define his time as mayor, and later become one of his chief regrets.

Giuliani, who would come back to defeat Dinkins in 1993, was among the first to pay tribute, saying on Twitter: "He gave a great deal of his life in service to our great City.

That service is respected and honored by all." New York's first African American Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement that Dinkins "lead with compassion and an unparalleled commitment to our communities...New York will mourn Mayor Dinkins and continue to be moved by his towering legacy.”