Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at a Memorial Service for Former Mayor David N. Dinkins

October 23, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Donna and David, and all the members of the Dinkins family, if you spent any time around the Mayor, you got to hear about you guys. You got to hear about his love. You got to hear about how family was the center of his life, the pride he felt. And you may not have known how much you were the source of his energy and his strength and what brought him joy. But we all got to see it. I want to thank all the members of the Dinkins family, because we, all of us who experienced the greatness of David Dinkins, all the people in the city who benefited from him, none of that would have been possible without you. So, please everyone join me in applauding the members of this great family.

[Applause]

I'm going to talk about Mayor Dinkins, but I have to say something for a moment about Joyce Dinkins, because everything we experienced wouldn't have been possible without her in every way. And I want to just take a moment to connect with my brothers and sisters who were part of that extraordinary experience in 1989. If you had anything to do with the 1989 David Dinkins campaign, raise your hand right now. Well then everyone I see here was part of the ultimate rag tag army. Come on, were we rag tag or what?

[Applause]

We were unlikely, we were not always the best regarded, but we had spirit and we had heart. And when we needed to look for some strength, we had a wonderful maternal figure among us in Joyce Dinkins. Because if you saw her in action, yes, charming and a smile for everyone and always knew the right thing to say, but you could see the steel. You could see the strength. It doesn't surprise me when we heard that beyond that perfect smile, she sometimes had a comment or two about the proceedings she saw around her. We could all sense that she didn't suffer fools easily, that she saw the truth of the world. And she was wanting to do something about it. And she found many a way. But we know that everything great that Mayor David Dinkins achieved, he achieved with her.

Now I'm going to indulge in some Dinkensisms, some nostalgia for all of you out there. And first I'm going to say, when you're speaking to such a distinguished crowd, one ought not acknowledge everyone in the room.

[Applause]

Now I remember many a time when David Dinkins said, you should not acknowledge everyone in the room and then proceeded to acknowledge everyone. Which I found contradictory. So, I will not follow that path, but for a very few, for a good reason. First of all, there's only a few of us left, so I want to thank my predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for joining us.

[Applause]

There's Michael Bloomberg. There's me. And there's another guy whose name I can't remember.

[Laughter]

And we can put it this way. There are two sane remaining living mayors of New York City.
[Applause]

Somehow, I think David Dinkins would've allowed me that break of protocol. The other acknowledgement of a dignitary is of someone, and I saw this so many times and it moved me so much, someone David Dinkins called his brother, who he took inspiration from, who he took spirit from, who always knew the right move and the right path. Because as he would say himself, he was educated in a very, very special institution, UCLA, the University of the Corner of Lenox Avenue, Congressman Charlie Rangel, thank you.

[Applause]

And the ultimate acknowledgement is very personal. For Chirlane and Chiara and Dante, and we know, you know, in politics, the famous phrase, what have you done for me lately? I always say, we know what David Dinkins did for us because I had the joy of meeting Chirlane and we fell in love while working for Mayor Dinkins. And for Chiara and Dante, well Mayor Dinkins is the reason they are on this earth. So, I thank you, Dave. I thank you because you made all things possible for our family.

I want to just say this. I'm not here to list his many accomplishments and they are many. And so often overlooked by the conventional voices. I often have said David Dinkins shaped this city in so many ways and yet so many people tried to airbrush his contribution out of history. But we remember, and we feel it. And everybody who experienced what he did feels it. But I want to talk about how we feel. The famous phrase from Maya Angelou, it's not what you said. It's how you made them feel. David Dinkins made us feel a lot. I witnessed the way he encountered the world around him. And the way he made people believe things that they wouldn't have otherwise. When he called us all together in 1989, a hope alive, you remember. He took that idea of the rainbow coalition, and some of us were with Jesse Jackson Senior last night, he took that rainbow coalition. He made it come alive here in New York City. We would enter a room at campaign headquarters and we would see every kind of New Yorker working in harmony in a way that for most of us, we had never experienced before in our lives. He made us feel that we were building something new. And he embodied it. He animated it.

Now, since I will provide you with a moment or two of nostalgia for everyone who went to the 1989 campaign headquarters, you'll remember there were some other business organizations in that building. Reverend, let's just say it was Time Square, 1989. Some of the businesses in that building were not spreading the gospel. Their interests were more temporal. And we had some interesting encounters in the elevator on the way to the campaign headquarters. But when you got there, you saw the future. You saw a unity that still didn't exist but could exist because of David Dinkins. When you're out in communities, you saw the love people felt. And the way he brought that forward, he didn't hold it at arm’s length. He let that love come out. He connected with people on the most human level. But we all know he connected most deeply, and it was a beauty to behold. He connected most deeply with the children of our city. If you spent more than five minutes with him and a child was nearby, you were going to hear phrases like cupcake and pumpkin and buddy.

But I remember, and it happened many a time, but it moved me every single time, I remember when you get close up and look a group of children in the eye, and if they are children of color, he always made sure to include in everything he said to them about their bright futures, you know you can become mayor. Because he understood, he was a living example. You understood he was saying in that moment and showing that the old rules were gone. And that moved me every time. And you could see the light in the eyes of those kids, when they heard it you could see the pride their parents felt in their possibilities because David Dinkins was saying it was possible.

I remember the difficult times, the indignities that were directed at him that no mayor, no person should have experienced. I remember that horrible day in Bensonhurst, when those who disagreed with them held up watermelons. I remember when off-duty police officers rioted in City Hall Plaza. I remember the difficult times. And those should not be airbrushed out of history either. I saw his strength. A lesser man could have buckled. He had a powerful sense of resiliency that in the act of not giving in, was progress itself. He showed us and a lot of us were young and a lot of us didn't know what was possible, but he showed us a strength and a way of living. He had a steel too, like Joyce. And he also knew how to put people in their place when they needed to be reminded of just who he was. I remember one time early in the first year of the mayoralty, a group of officials was briefing him and they had stayed over from the previous administration. At a certain point, they started to talk to him in a manner that was maybe just a bit condescending. He cut off the conversation sharply. And he turned to those of us who had been a part of his campaign. And he said, you know, some people think we got here by taking a civil service exam. And then he let a hush fall over the room to make his point.

I remember so many of those moments. I remember moments of triumph. I remember moments where he dared. When he brought Nelson Mandela here, it wasn't easy. It wasn't without controversy. But it was audacious because he said and he was providing Nelson Mandela with the state visit, he deserved, but the United States of America was not yet ready to give him. David Dinkins did that here in New York City. If you were at the steps of City Hall that day, or if you were at Yankee Stadium, it's like it was yesterday. And we could feel the power of what our mayor was doing. When he had President Aristide here among us in solidarity. The many acts that he took that were brave, whether they were local or international, he was willing to go places that weren't convenient and do things that weren't always the conventional wisdom. Because behind that kindness, that courtesy, that warmth, was a man who demanded change and personified it.

And I'll finish with this because I have so many feelings when I think of David Dinkins and so many New Yorkers do, to this hour of this day. We felt his dignity. We felt his heart, the kindness he showed to people, the loyalty, the way he always upheld and uplifted the young people in his team way. He told us what was possible for us and we heard it and we believed. But I ultimately remember one thing and this is the most important feeling of all. For so many people who had felt held back, who had seen change denied time and time again, who didn't know if it was even possible to hope for a better and fairer life. David Dinkins, every moment he stepped in front of the microphone, every moment he walked the streets of this city. Every time he put his hand out to a child, every time he gave us hope that yes, in fact, things could change. Many, many contributions, but to me, the greatest was he proved it. For anyone who needed hope, for anyone who needed to believe that it was worth the struggle, worth the fight, worth pouring out our heart and our soul and our love for something better. He proved that yes, it was worth it. He gave us hope and that hope will never die. God bless you all.

###