John Lindsay

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John Vliet Lindsay (/vliːt/; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, the mayor of New York City, and a 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 from January 1966 to December 1973.

He switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party in 1971, and launched a brief and unsuccessful bid for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, and later for the 1980 Democratic nomination for Senator from New York.

Early life

Lindsay was born in New York City on

Back in New York City, Lindsay met his future wife, Mary Anne Harrison (1926–2004), at the wedding of

Lindsay began gravitating toward politics as one of the founders of the Youth for

While in Congress, Lindsay established a liberal voting record increasingly at odds with his own party.[10] He was an early supporter of federal aid to education and Medicare;^[2] and advocated the establishment of a federal United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and a National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities.^[2] He was called a maverick,^[1] casting the lone dissenting vote for a Republican-sponsored bill extending the power of the Postmaster General to impound obscene mail^[2] and one of only two dissenting votes for a bill allowing federal interception of mail from Communist countries.^[2] 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".^[6] Lindsay voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and 1964, the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Mayor of New York City

In

On his first day as mayor, January 1, 1966, the Transport Workers Union of America, led by Mike Quill, 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.^[16] Dick Schaap, then a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, popularized the term in an article titled "Fun City".^[16][17] In the article, Schaap sardonically pointed out that it was not.^[16][17]

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 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, 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-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.^[18] The strike was tinged with racial and anti-Semitic overtones, pitting Black and Puerto Rican parents against Jewish teachers and supervisors.^[19] Many thought the mayor had made a bad situation worse by taking sides against the teachers.^[19] The episode left a legacy of tensions between African-Americans and Jews that went on for years,^[1] and Lindsay called it his greatest regret.^[1]

That same year, 1968, also saw a three-day Broadway strike and a nine-day sanitation strike.^[20] Quality of life in the city reached a nadir during the sanitation strike as mounds of garbage caught fire and strong winds blew the filth through the streets.^[21] 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.^[22] 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."^[1]

The summer of 1971 ushered in another devastating strike as over 8,000 workers belonging to

Lindsay served on the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission, and was its vice chairman. This body was appointed 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 consistent with his rhetoric.^[23]

President Johnson ignored the report and rejected the Kerner Commission's recommendations.^[24] 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.^[25] However, in New York City, Lindsay traveled directly into Harlem, telling Black residents that he regretted King's death and was working against poverty.^[26] He is credited with averting riots in the city with this direct response, even as other major cities burned.^[27][28] 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."^[29]

Lindsay showed his support for New York's African American community through his administration's sponsorship of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which is documented in the 2021 music film, Summer of Soul.^[30] 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 15 inches (38 cm) of snow. On the first day alone, 14 people died and 68 were injured.^[31] Within a day, the mayor was criticized for giving favored treatment to Manhattan at the expense of the other boroughs.^[32] Charges were made that a city worker solicited a bribe to clean streets in Queens.^[33]

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.

The blizzard, dubbed the "Lindsay Snowstorm,” [36] prompted a political crisis that became "legendary in the annals of municipal politics"^[35] 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.^[1]

Reelection

In 1969, a backlash against Lindsay caused him to lose the Republican mayoral primary to state Senator 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, defeated several more liberal contenders and won the nomination with only a plurality of the votes. "The more the Mario," he quipped.^[37] Procaccino, who ran to Lindsay's right, went on to coin the term "limousine liberal" to describe Lindsay and his wealthy Manhattan backers.

Despite losing the Republican nomination, Lindsay remained on the ballot as the candidate of the

On May 8, 1970, near the intersection of

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 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.

Assessments

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the

Lindsay was mentioned as a Republican Vice Presidential possibility in 1968, but was found to be unacceptable by Southern conservatives, and Spiro Agnew was nominated instead. 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. 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."^[52] 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, coming in second place^[53] behind Edmund Muskie of Maine and ahead of eventual nominee George McGovern of South Dakota. Then in the March 14 Florida primary, he placed a weak fifth place, behind George Wallace of Alabama, Muskie, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, and Scoop Jackson of Washington (though he did edge out McGovern).^[54] 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.^[55][56] His poor showing in Florida effectively doomed his candidacy. Shortly thereafter, influential Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman Meade Esposito called for Lindsay to end his campaign: "I think the handwriting is on the wall; Little Sheba better come home."^[57] 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.^[58] By 1978, The New York Times called Lindsay "an exile in his own city".^[59]

Lindsay's record remained controversial after he left politics. Conservative historian Fred Siegel, 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".^[60] 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."^[61]

Lindsay's budget aide

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."[1] McFadden also credited him for reducing racial tensions, leading to the prevention of riots that plagued Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark and other cities.^[1]

Legacy

Lindsay also fought to transform the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board from an internal police-run department, into a public-minded agency with a citizen majority board.^[64]

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

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,[68] and in 2001, the East River Park was renamed in his memory.^[69] In December 2013, South Loop Drive in Manhattan's Central Park was renamed after Lindsay, to commemorate his support for a car-free Central Park.^[70]

He was featured on a poster picture with Governor Nelson Rockefeller at the groundbreaking of the former World Trade Center in the city history section of the Museum of the City of New York 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, 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.
• John C. Walker, The Harlem Fox: J. Raymond Jones and Tammany, 1920–1970, New York: State University New York Press, 1989.
• 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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Lindsay.

• John Vliet Lindsay papers (MS 592). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

• United States Congress. "John Lindsay (id: L000326)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• John Vliet Lindsay at nyc.gov
• The Mayor John Lindsay Collection at The WNYC Archives
• John Lindsay's Bright, Shining Failure, City Journal online, October 6, 2010
• John Vliet Lindsay UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
• Triple Canopy
• John Lindsay at Find a Grave
• La Guardia and Wagner Archives/The Lindsay Collection Archived January 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• Appearances on C-SPAN

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Frederic Coudert	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 17th congressional district 1959–1965	Succeeded by Theodore R. Kupferman
Political offices
Preceded by Robert F. Wagner Jr.	Mayor of New York City 1966–1973	Succeeded by Abraham Beame