Beyond Politics in Black and White

On November 2, 1993, Rudolph Giuliani defeated David Dinkins to become New York City’s third Republican mayor in this century. Although the 1993 election closely paralleled the 1989 race between the two, small shifts in turnout and preference produced a large difference in the outcome. Disappointingly low turnout among African-American voters and a decline in support among other groups defeated Dinkins, the city’s first African-American mayor, after only one term. Dinkins did not lose the election only because of his weak performance in minority and white liberal neighborhoods, however, but also because white voters living outside Manhattan turned out in large numbers and favored Giuliani. By mobilizing white Catholic and Jewish supporters and broadening his base just enough, Giuliani revitalized the conservative political alignment fashioned by Ed Koch in the 1980s.

Mayor Dinkins’s term was marked by persistent inter-group conflict in Washington Heights, th...