The Limits of Black Pragmatism: The Rise and Fall of David Dinkins, 1989–1993

Abstract

In the 1980s New York City's fortunes seemed to descend as the decade progressed. In 1989 David Dinkins won the city's mayoral race by constructing a “Rainbow Coalition” of Blacks, Latinos, liberal whites, and labor. By taking a strategically pragmatic approach to the office, Dinkins emerged from his campaign victorious, but soon found his coalition difficult to maintain, as each constituency held differing expectations of New York's first and only Black mayor. Race both propelled Dinkins to victory in 1989 and contributed to his defeat in 1993. This article argues that racial tensions, a difficult economy, budget deficits, entrenched police opposition, and Dinkins' own failures of leadership combined to undermine his attempts at re-election and identifies the limits of Black pragmatism.