John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular guest host of ''
Good Morning America''. Lindsay served as a member of the
United States House of Representatives from January 1959 to December 1965 and as
mayor of New York City from January 1966 to December 1973.
He switched from the
Republican to the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
* Botswana Democratic Party
* Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*De ...
in 1971, and launched a brief and unsuccessful bid for the
1972 Democratic presidential nomination as well as the 1980 Democratic nomination for Senator from New York.
Early life
Lindsay was born in New York City on
West End Avenue
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
to George Nelson Lindsay and the former Florence Eleanor Vliet.
He grew up in an upper-middle-class family of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
and
Dutch descent.
Lindsay's paternal grandfather migrated to the United States in the 1880s from the
Isle of Wight,
and his mother was from an upper-middle-class family that had been in New York since the 1660s.
His mother was a descendant of Dirck Jans van der Vliet (1612–1689) who settled in the then Dutch settlement of
New Netherlands around 1659–1660 as son Henderick was born in what is now
Livingston, New York
Livingston is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 3,628 at the 2020 census.US Census Bureau, 2020 census, Livingston town, Columbia County, New York https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&cs ...
. Lindsay's father was a successful lawyer and
investment banker.
Lindsay attended the
Buckley School,
St. Paul's School, and
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
,
where he was admitted to the class of 1944 and joined
Scroll and Key
The Scroll and Key Society is a Collegiate secret societies in North America, secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Collegiate secret societies in North America#Yale University, Y ...
.
Military service and legal career
With the outbreak of World War II, Lindsay completed his studies early and in 1943 joined the
United States Navy as a
gunnery officer
The gunnery officer of a warship was the officer responsible for operation and maintenance of the ship's guns and for safe storage of the ship's ammunition inventory.
Background
The gunnery officer was usually the line officer next in rank to th ...
. He obtained the rank of
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
, earning five
battle stars
A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...
through action in the
invasion of Sicily and a series of landings in the
Pacific theater.
After the war, he spent a few months as a ski bum
and a couple of months training as a bank clerk
before returning to New Haven, where he received his law degree from
Yale Law School in 1948, ahead of schedule.
In 1949, he began his legal career at the law firm of
Webster, Sheffield, Fleischmann, Hitchcock & Chrystie.
Marriage
Back in New York City, Lindsay met his future wife, Mary Anne Harrison (1926–2004), at the wedding of
Nancy Walker Bush (daughter of
Connecticut's Senator
Prescott Bush
Prescott Sheldon Bush (May 15, 1895 – October 8, 1972) was an American banker as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the from 1952 of the Bush family, he was the father of former Vice President and P ...
and sister of future President
George Herbert Walker Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
and aunt of
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
&
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush a ...
),
where he was an
usher and Harrison a
bridesmaid
Bridesmaids are members of the bride's party in a Western traditional wedding ceremony. A bridesmaid is typically a young woman and often a close friend or relative. She attends to the bride on the day of a wedding or marriage ceremony. Traditi ...
.
She was a graduate of
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely followi ...
and a distant relative of
William Henry Harrison and
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pre ...
.
They married in 1949.
That same year Lindsay was admitted to the bar, and rose to become a partner in his law firm four years later.
They had three daughters and a son.
U.S. Representative
Lindsay began gravitating toward politics as one of the founders of the Youth for
Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
club in 1951 and as president of
The New York Young Republican Club
The New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) is an organization for members of the Republican Party between the ages of 18 and 40 in New York City. The New York Young Republican Club is the oldest and largest chapter in the United States, founded i ...
in 1952.
He went on to join the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
in 1955 as executive assistant to
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Herbert Brownell. There he worked on
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
cases as well as the
1957 Civil Rights Act. In 1958, with the backing of Brownell as well as
Bruce Barton
Bruce Fairchild Barton (August 5, 1886 – July 5, 1967) was an American author, advertising executive, and Republican politician. He represented Manhattan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1937 to 1941. In 1940, he ran for election to t ...
,
John Aspinwall Roosevelt
John Aspinwall Roosevelt II (March 13, 1916 – April 27, 1981) was an American businessman and the sixth and last child of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Early life
John Aspinwall Roosevelt II was the yo ...
, and
Edith Willkie,
Lindsay won the Republican primary and went on to be elected to Congress as the representative of the "
Silk Stocking" 17th district, exemplified by
Manhattan's
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
but also encompassing the diverse
Lower East Side and historically bohemian
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
.
While in Congress, Lindsay established a liberal voting record increasingly at odds with his own party.
He was an early supporter of federal aid to education and
Medicare;
and advocated the establishment of a federal
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and a
National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
.
He was called a maverick,
casting the lone dissenting vote for a Republican-sponsored bill extending the power of the
Postmaster General to impound obscene mail
and one of only two dissenting votes for a bill allowing federal interception of mail from
Communist countries.
Also known for his wit, when asked by his party leaders why he opposed legislation to combat communism and pornography, he replied that the two were the major industries of his district and if they were suppressed then "the 17th district would be a depressed area".
Mayoralty of New York City
In
1965
Events January–February
* January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
* January 20
** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term as ...
, Lindsay was elected
Mayor of New York City as a Republican with the support of the
Liberal Party of New York in a three-way race. He defeated Democratic mayoral candidate
Abraham D. Beame
Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
...
, then City Comptroller, as well as ''
National Review'' founder
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded '' National Review'', the magazine that sti ...
, who ran on the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
line. The unofficial motto of the campaign, taken from a
Murray Kempton column, was "He is fresh and everyone else is tired".
Labor issues
On his first day as mayor, January 1, 1966, the
Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discu ...
, led by
Mike Quill
Michael Joseph "Red Mike" Quill (September 18, 1905 – January 28, 1966) was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in ot ...
, shut down the city with a
complete halt of subway and bus service. As New Yorkers endured the transit strike, Lindsay remarked, "I still think it's a fun city", and walked four miles (6 km) from his hotel room to City Hall in a gesture to show it.
Dick Schaap
Richard Jay Schaap (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author.
Early life and education
Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and raised in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, Schaap began wri ...
, then a columnist for the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'', popularized the term in an article titled "Fun City".
[The Fun City, ''New York Herald Tribune'', January 7, 1966, pg. 13:][Schneider, Daniel B]
F.Y.I.
'' New York Times'', January 3, 1999. In the article, Schaap sardonically pointed out that it was not.
In 1966, the settlement terms of the transit strike, combined with increased welfare costs and general economic decline, forced Lindsay to lobby the New York State legislature for a new municipal
income tax and higher water rates for city residents, plus a new
commuter tax
A commuter tax is a tax (generally on either income or wages) levied upon persons who work, but do not live, in a particular jurisdiction. The argument for a commuter tax is that it pays for public services, such as police, fire, and sanitation, re ...
for people who worked in the city but resided elsewhere. The transit strike was the first of many labor struggles. In 1968, in an attempt to decentralize the city's school system, Lindsay granted three local school boards in the city complete control over their schools, in an effort to allow communities to have more of a say in their schools. The city's teachers union, the
United Federation of Teachers
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and 17,000 paraprofessional educators in the union, as well as about 54,000 ...
, however, saw the breakup as a way of
union busting, as a decentralized school system would force the union to negotiate with 33 separate school boards rather than with one centralized body. As a result, in May 1968 several teachers working in schools located in the neighborhood of
Ocean Hill
Ocean Hill is a subsection of Bedford-Stuyvesant in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 16 and was founded in 1890. The ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11233. Ocean Hill's boundaries ...
-
Brownsville, one of the neighborhoods where the decentralization was being tested, were fired from their jobs by the community-run school board. The UFT demanded the reinstatement of the dismissed teachers, citing that the teachers had been fired without
due process. When their demands were ignored, the UFT called the first of three strikes, leading ultimately to a
protracted citywide teachers' strike that stretched over a seven-month period between May and November. The strike was tinged with racial and anti-Semitic overtones, pitting Black and Puerto Rican parents against Jewish teachers and supervisors.
Many thought the mayor had made a bad situation worse by taking sides against the teachers.
[Carroll, Maurice]
Lindsay in Retrospect
'' New York Times'', December 31, 1973, p. 7. The episode left a legacy of tensions between African-Americans and Jews that went on for years,
and Lindsay called it his greatest regret.
That same year, 1968, also saw a three-day Broadway strike and a nine-day
sanitation strike.
Quality of life in the city reached a nadir during the sanitation strike as mounds of
garbage
Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste produc ...
caught fire and strong winds blew the filth through the streets.
In June 1968, the New York City Police Department deployed snipers to protect Lindsay during a public ceremony, shortly after they detained a knife-wielding man who had demanded to meet the mayor. With the schools shut down, police engaged in a slowdown, firefighters threatening job actions, the city awash in garbage, and racial and religious tensions breaking to the surface, Lindsay later called the last six months of 1968 "the worst of my public life."
The summer of 1971 ushered in another devastating strike as over 8,000 workers belonging to
AFSCME
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. It represents 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, correcti ...
District Council 37 walked off their jobs for two days. The strikers included the operators of the city's
drawbridge
A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveabl ...
s and
sewage treatment plant
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding en ...
s. Drawbridges over the
Harlem River were locked in the "up" position, barring automobile travel into Manhattan, and hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage flowed into local waterways.
Racial and civil unrest
Lindsay served on the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the
Kerner Commission
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established in July 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in to in ...
. This body was established in 1967 by President Johnson after riots in urban centers of the US, including Newark and Detroit. Lindsay maximized publicity and coverage of his activities on the commission, and while other commissioners made inconspicuous visits to riot-damaged sites, Lindsay would alert the press before his fact-finding missions. Nonetheless, he was especially influential in producing the Kerner Report; its dramatic language of the nation "moving toward two societies, one Black, one white—separate and unequal" was his rhetoric.
President Johnson ignored the report and rejected the Kerner Commission's recommendations.
In April 1968, one month after the release of the Kerner report, rioting broke out in
more than 100 cities following the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at ...
However, in New York City, Lindsay traveled directly into
Harlem, telling Black residents that he regretted King's death and was working against poverty. He is credited with averting riots in the city with this direct response, even as other major cities burned.
David Garth, who accompanied Lindsay that night, recalled: "There was a wall of people coming across
125th Street, going from west to east ... I thought we were dead. John raised his hands, said he was sorry. It was very quiet. My feeling was, his appearance there was very reassuring to people because it wasn't the first time they had seen him. He had gone there on a regular basis. That gave him credibility when it hit the fan."
Lindsay showed his support for New York's African American community through his administration's sponsorship of the 1969
Harlem Cultural Festival
The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of events, mainly music concerts, held annually in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, between 1967 and 1969 which celebrated African American music and culture and promoted Black pride. The most successful ...
, which is documented in the 2021 music film, ''
Summer of Soul
''Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)'' is a 2021 American documentary film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in his directorial debut. It had its world premiere at the ...
''. The host of the festival, Tony Lawrence, introduces the mayor to the Harlem crowd as "our blue-eyed soul brother."
Blizzard of 1969
On February 10, 1969, New York City was pummeled with of snow. On the first day alone, 14 people died and 68 were injured. Within a day, the mayor was criticized for giving favored treatment to Manhattan at the expense of the other boroughs. Charges were made that a city worker solicited a bribe to clean streets in Queens.
Over a week later, streets in eastern Queens still remained unplowed by the city, enraging the borough's residents, many who felt that the city's other boroughs always took a back seat to Manhattan. Lindsay traveled to Queens, but his visit was not well received. His car could not make its way through
Rego Park
Rego Park is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, to the east and south by Forest Hills, and to the west by Middle Village. Rego Park's boundaries include Queens ...
, and even in a four-wheel-drive truck, he had trouble getting around.
In
Kew Gardens Hills
Kew Gardens Hills is a neighborhood in the middle of the New York City borough of Queens. The borders are Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the west, the Long Island Expressway to the north, Union Turnpike to the south, and Parsons Boulevard to t ...
, the mayor was booed; one woman screamed, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
In
Fresh Meadows
Fresh Meadows is a neighborhood in the northeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. Fresh Meadows used to be part of the broader town of Flushing and is bordered to the north by the Horace Harding Expressway; to the west by Po ...
, a woman told the mayor: "Get away, you bum."
Later during his walk through Fresh Meadows, another woman called him "a wonderful man," prompting the mayor to respond: "And you're a wonderful woman, not like those fat Jewish broads up there," pointing to women in a nearby building who had criticized him.
The blizzard, dubbed the "Lindsay Snowstorm,”
prompted a political crisis that became "legendary in the annals of municipal politics"
as the scenes conveyed a message that the mayor of New York City was indifferent to the middle class and poor citizens of the city.
Re-election
In 1969, a backlash against Lindsay caused him to lose the Republican mayoral
primary to
state Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
Description
A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of ...
John Marchi, who was enthusiastically supported by William F. Buckley and the rest of the party's conservative wing. In the Democratic primary, the most conservative candidate, City Comptroller
Mario Procaccino
Mario Angelo Procaccino (September 5, 1912 – December 20, 1995) was an Italian-American lawyer, comptroller, and candidate for Mayor of New York City.
Life and career
Procaccino was born in Bisaccia, Italy. When he was nine years old, his ...
, defeated several more liberal contenders and won the nomination with only a
plurality of the votes. "The more the Mario," he quipped. Procaccino, who ran to Lindsay's right, went on to coin the term "
limousine liberal
Limousine liberal and latte liberal are pejorative U.S. political terms used to illustrate hypocritical behavior by political liberals of upper class or upper middle class status. The label stems primarily from unwillingness of ''limousine li ...
" to describe Lindsay and his wealthy
Manhattan backers.
Despite losing the Republican nomination, Lindsay remained on the ballot as the candidate of the
New York Liberal Party
The Liberal Party of New York is a political party in New York. Its platform supports a standard set of socially liberal policies, including abortion rights, increased spending on education, and universal health care.
History
The Liberal Party wa ...
. In his campaign he said "mistakes were made" and called being mayor of New York City "the second toughest job in America." Two television advertisements described his position: In one he looked directly into the camera and said, "I guessed wrong on the weather before the city's biggest snowfall last winter. And that was a mistake. But I put 6,000 more cops on the streets. And that was no mistake. The school strike went on too long and we all made some mistakes. But I brought 225,000 more jobs to this town. And that was no mistake... And we did not have a Detroit, a
Watts
Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power.
Watts may also refer to:
People
* Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters
*Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful''
* Watts family, six cha ...
or
Newark. And those were no mistakes. The things that go wrong are what make this the second toughest job in America. But the things that go right are those things that make me want it." The second opened with a drive through the
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects the New York City neighborhood of Hudson Square in Lower Manhattan to the east with Jersey City in New Jersey to the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Authorit ...
from lower Manhattan toward
New Jersey and suggested that, "Every New Yorker should take this trip at least once before election day..." followed by video of Newark, New Jersey which had been devastated by race riots.
While narrowly losing
Brooklyn and
the Bronx due to Procaccino's entrenched support among ethnic, working class whites (with Marchi winning his native
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull a ...
), Lindsay was able to vanquish his opponents with support from three distinct groups.
First were the city's minorities, mostly African Americans and Puerto Ricans, who were concentrated in
Harlem, the
South Bronx and various Brooklyn neighborhoods, including
Bedford-Stuyvesant and
Brownsville.
Second were the white and economically secure residents of certain areas of Manhattan.
Third were the whites in the boroughs outside Manhattan who had a similar educational background and "cosmopolitan" attitude, namely residents of solidly middle-class neighborhoods, including
Forest Hills and
Kew Gardens in
Queens and
Brooklyn Heights
Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south, an ...
in Brooklyn.
This third category included many traditionally Democratic Jewish Americans who were repelled by Procaccino's conservatism. This created a plurality coalition (42%) in Lindsay's second three-way race. His margin of victory rose from just over 100,000 more votes than his Democratic opponent in 1965 to over 180,000 votes over Procaccino in 1969, despite appearing on just one
third party
Third party may refer to:
Business
* Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller
* Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party
* Third-party insurance, such as a V ...
ballot line (see
New York City Mayoral Elections
The mayor of New York City is elected in early November every four years, in the year immediately following a United States presidential election year, and takes office at the beginning of the following year. The city, which elects the mayor as ...
).
[Kihss, Pete]
Poor and Rich, Not Middle-Class, The Key to Lindsay Re-Election
November 6, 1969.
Hard-hat riots
On May 8, 1970, near the intersection of
Wall Street and
Broad Street and at
New York City Hall, a riot started when about 200
construction worker
A construction worker is a worker employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure.
Definition
By some definitions, workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers; they may be s ...
s mobilized by the New York State
AFL–CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...
labor federation attacked about 1,000 high school and college students and others
protesting the
Kent State shootings
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...
, the
Cambodian Campaign, and the
Vietnam War. Some attorneys, bankers, and investment analysts from nearby Wall Street investment firms tried to protect many of the students but were themselves attacked, and some onlookers reported that the police stood by and did nothing. Although more than 70 people were injured, including four policemen, only six people were arrested.
[Foner, ''U.S. Labor and the Vietnam War'', 1989.] The following day, Lindsay severely criticized the police for their lack of action. Police Department labor leaders later accused Lindsay of "undermining the confidence of the public in its Police Department" by his statements and blamed the inaction on inadequate preparations and "inconsistent directives" in the past from the mayor's office. Several thousand construction workers, longshoremen and white-collar workers protested against the mayor on May 11 and again on May 16. Protesters called Lindsay "the red mayor," "traitor," "Commie rat," and "bum." The mayor described the mood of the city as "taut."
Police corruption
In 1970, ''The New York Times'' printed
New York City Police Department Patrolman
Frank Serpico's claims of widespread
police corruption. As a result, the
Knapp Commission
The Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as the Knapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp) was a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption wit ...
was eventually formed that April by Lindsay, with investigations beginning in June, although public hearings did not start until October 18, 1971. Its preliminary report was not issued until August 1972, and final recommendations only released on December 27, 1972. Because of his forming of the Knapp Commission, many NYPD officers disliked him and didn't want him to attend their funerals in case they died on duty and heckled, hissed, jeered and booed him when he did appear. The wife of Rocco Laurie, one of two city police officers who were murdered by Black revolutionaries in 1972, specifically stated that she did not want Lindsay to attend her husband's funeral that year.
Party switch and presidential campaign
Lindsay’s original break with the Republican Party began immediately after he failed to win the 1969 Republican mayoral Primary, and his subsequent association with the New York Liberal Party for that election. In 1971, Lindsay and his wife cut ties with the Republican Party by registering with the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
* Botswana Democratic Party
* Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*De ...
. Lindsay said, "In a sense, this step recognizes the failure of 20 years in progressive Republican politics. In another sense, it represents the renewed decision to fight for new national leadership." Lindsay then launched a brief and unsuccessful bid for the
1972 Democratic presidential nomination. He attracted positive media attention and was a successful fundraiser. Lindsay did well in the early
Arizona caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures.
The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to a meeting ...
, coming in second place behind
Edmund Muskie of
Maine and ahead of eventual nominee
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 p ...
of
South Dakota. Then in the March 14 Florida primary, he placed a weak fifth place, behind
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...
of
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
, Muskie,
Hubert Humphrey of
Minnesota, and
Scoop Jackson of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
(though he did edge out McGovern).
Among his difficulties was New York City's worsening problems, which Lindsay was accused of neglecting; a band of protesters from
Forest Hills, Queens, who were opposed to his support for a low income housing project in their neighborhood, followed Lindsay around his aborted campaign itinerary to jeer and heckle him. His poor showing in Florida effectively doomed his candidacy. Shortly thereafter, influential Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman
Meade Esposito
Amadeo Henry "Meade" Esposito (1907 – September 3, 1993) was an American politician who was a Brooklyn Democratic leader and political boss. Esposito served as chairman of the Kings County Democratic Committee from 1969 to 1984. As a leader, h ...
called for Lindsay to end his campaign: "I think the handwriting is on the wall;
Little Sheba better come home." After a poor showing in the April 5
Wisconsin primary, Lindsay formally abandoned the race.
Assessment
In a 1972 Gallup poll, 60% of New Yorkers felt Lindsay's administration was working poorly, nine percent rated it good, and not one person thought its performance excellent. By 1978, ''
The New York Times'' called Lindsay "an exile in his own city".
Lindsay's record remained controversial after he left politics. Conservative historian
Fred Siegel
Fred Siegel ( ; born 1945) is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank which focuses on urban policy and politics.. He also serves as a professor of history and the humanities at Cooper Union and is ...
, calling Lindsay the worst New York City mayor of the 20th century, said "Lindsay wasn't incompetent or foolish or corrupt, but he was actively destructive". Journalist Steven Weisman observed "Lindsay's congressional career had taught him little of the need for subtle bureaucratic maneuvering, for understanding an opponent's self-interest, or for the great patience required in a sprawling government."
Lindsay's budget aide
Peter C. Goldmark, Jr. told historian Vincent Cannato that the administration "failed to come to grips with what a neighborhood is. We never realized that crime is something that happens to, and in, a community." Assistant Nancy Seifer said "There was a whole world out there that nobody in City Hall knew anything about ... If you didn't live on
Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
, you were some kind of lesser being." Many experts traced the city's mid-1970s fiscal crisis to the Lindsay years, and to the new taxes that he imposed.
An alternate assessment was made by journalist Robert McFadden who said that "By 1973, his last year in office, Mr. Lindsay had become a more seasoned, pragmatic mayor."
McFadden also credited him for reducing racial tensions, leading to the prevention of riots that plagued Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark and other cities.
Legacy
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as ...
,
Carl McCall
Herman Carl McCall (born October 17, 1935) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. A former New York State Comptroller and New York State Senator, McCall was the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York in 2002. McCall was the ...
, and
Carter F. Bales were among the many people who started their careers in public service in the Lindsay administration.
Rev. Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democrati ...
has said that he still remembers Lindsay having walked the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Harlem when these neighborhoods were doing poorly economically.
Lindsay also fought to transform the
Civilian Complaint Review Board
The NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) is the oversight agency of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the largest police force in the United States. A board of the Government of New York City, the CCRB is tasked with investigatin ...
from an internal police-run department, into a public-minded agency with a citizen majority board. Initially and vociferously opposed by the police union, citizen oversight of police—which sprang from the American
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...
—has since become an established institution in civic life, and Lindsay was a leader for it.
Later life
After leaving office, Lindsay returned to the law, but remained in the public eye as a commentator and regular guest host for ABC's ''
Good Morning America''. In 1975, Lindsay made a surprise appearance on ''
The Tony Awards'' telecast in which he, along with a troupe of celebrity male suitors in tuxedos, sang "
Mame
MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. Its intention is to preserve ...
" to
Angela Lansbury
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American film, stage, and television actress. Her career spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States, and her work received a great deal ...
. He presented the award for
Best Director Of A Play to
John Dexter
John Dexter (2 August 1925 – 23 March 1990) was an English theatre, opera and film director.
Theatre
Born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, Dexter left school at the age of fourteen to serve in the British Army during the Second World War. F ...
for the play ''
Equus''. Lindsay also tried his hand at acting, appearing in
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.
He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
's ''
Rosebud''; the following year his novel, ''The Edge'', was published (Lindsay had earlier authored two non-fiction memoirs): the ''
New York Times'', in its contemporary review of the novel, said it was "as dead-serious as a $100-a-plate dinner of gray meat and frozen candidates' smiles."
Attempting a political comeback in 1980, Lindsay made a long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from New York, and finished third. He was also active in New York City charities, serving on the board of the Association for a Better New York, and as chairman of the
Lincoln Center Theater. On his death, ''
New York Times'' credited Lindsay with a significant role in the rejuvenation of the theatre.
[
Medical bills from his Parkinson's disease, heart attacks, and stroke depleted Lindsay's finances, as did the collapse of two law firms where he worked, and he found himself without health insurance. Lindsay's eight years of service as mayor left him seven years short of qualifying for a city pension. In 1996, with support from City Council Speaker ]Peter Vallone
Peter Fortunate Vallone Sr. (born December 13, 1934 in New York City) is an American politician.
Background
His father, Judge Charles J. Vallone (1901–1967) of the Queens County Civil Court, encouraged young Peter to broaden his horizons b ...
, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed Lindsay to two largely ceremonial posts to make him eligible for municipal health insurance coverage. He and his wife, Mary, moved to a retirement community in Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of C ...
, South Carolina, in November 1999, where he died on December 19, 2000, at the age of 79 of complications from pneumonia and Parkinson's disease.
In 2000, Yale Law School created a fellowship program named in Lindsay's honor. In 1998, a park in Brooklyn, Lindsay Triangle, was named in his honor, and in 2001, the East River Park
East River Park, also called John V. Lindsay East River Park, is public park located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, administered by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Bisected by the Williamsburg Bridge, it stretche ...
was renamed in his memory. In December 2013, South Loop Drive in Manhattan's Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
was renamed after Lindsay, to commemorate his support for a car-free Central Park.[Roberts, Sam]
For Lindsay, a Rare Monument to a New York Mayor
'' New York Times'', December 16, 2013, p. A25.
He was featured on a poster picture with Governor Rockefeller at the groundbreaking of the former World Trade Center in the city history section of the Museum of the City of New York
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street.
See also
* List of American politicians who switched parties in office
* List of mayors of New York City
* Timeline of New York City
This article is a timeline of the history of New York City in the state of New York, US.
Prior to 1700s
* 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to see New York Harbor arrives and names it Nouvelle-Angoulême.
* 1613 – Juan (J ...
, 1960s–1970s
References
Further reading
*Buckley, William F.
The Unmaking of a Mayor
'. New York: Viking Press, 1966.
*Button, Daniel E.
Lindsay: A Man For Tomorrow
'' New York: Random House, 1965.
*Cannato, Vincent J. The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
*Carter, Barbara.
The Road to City Hall: How John V. Lindsay Became Mayor
'' Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967.
*Citron, Casper. John V. Lindsay and the Silk Stocking Story. New York: Fleet Publishing Corp., 1965.
*Gottehrer, Barry.
The Mayor's Man.
' Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975.
*Hentoff, Nat.
A Political Life: The Education of John V. Lindsay.
' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969.
*Klein, Woody.
Lindsay's Promise: The Dream That Failed; A Personal Account.
' New York: Macmillan, 1970.
*Lindsay, John Vliet
Journey into politics
' Dodd, Mead, 1967
*Lindsay, John Vliet
The City
' New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1970.
*Lindsay, John Vliet
The Edge
' New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1976.
External links
* John Vliet Lindsay papers (MS 592). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
John Vliet Lindsay
a
nyc.gov
The Mayor John Lindsay Collection
a
The WNYC Archives
* ttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5229/is_2003/ai_n19148184/?tag=content;col1 John Vliet LindsayUXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
Triple Canopy
*
La Guardia and Wagner Archives/The Lindsay Collection
*
, -
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