David Dinkins served as Mayor of New York City from 1989/90 until 1993/94.
Dinkins received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Howard University in 1950, and went on to Brooklyn Law School, graduating in 1956. Right after graduating, he went into private practice until 1975.
From 1975 until 1985, David Dinkins was New York City Clerk, becoming the President of the Borough of Manhattan in 1986, a position he held until 1989 when he was elected as New York City's first African-American mayor. He served one term as mayor, preceeding Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
I have an autographed picture of Mayor Dinkins. Our class had an assignment to write to him about something which concerned us as a community. I don't remember if the entire class was given a single subject to write about, or a choice from a list of suggested subjects, but I remember I wrote to him about public library hours on weekends. He replied with a hand signed (albeit pre-written) typed letter about how he intended to be the "toughest mayor New York City has ever seen", but included nothing about my concerns regarding the library.
Included with his letter was a glossy, black and white photograph, hand signed with the inscription "You are our future. David Dinkins."