Lindsay, John V.

A mayor of New York City (1966–1974) known for his innovative social reform initiatives, John V. Lindsay (1921–2000) graduated from Yale University in 1943 and, after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, sought a career in public service. A graduate of Yale Law School in 1948, he joined the reform wing of the Republican Party and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1958, representing Manhattan's Upper East Side. During four terms in Congress, Lindsay built a reputation as a liberal, voting for civil rights and Great Society legislation. He ran for mayor in 1965 as a Republican. With the endorsement of the Liberal Party, Lindsay defeated the Democratic nominee, Abraham D. Beame, and Conservative William F. Buckley.

Promising reform, Lindsay took initiatives that antagonized the city's middle-class whites. Hours after taking office, Lindsay faced a public transit strike that shut down the city's subways. To combat police brutality, Lindsay established a civilian complaint board, only to have it rejected by the city's white voters, many of whom viewed it as a concession to minorities. To avert race riots, Lindsay walked the streets of the city's most troubled neighborhoods. When New York [Page 438]emerged largely unscathed by the riots that swept the nation in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Lindsay to the Kerner Commission, which issued an influential report on the riots.

To increase minority control over neighborhood schools, Lindsay decentralized the city's school system and established community school districts. In 1968, the city's teachers responded to the experiment in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section with a series of strikes that shut down the public school system. The strikes further weakened Lindsay's standing among middle-class whites. Seeking re-election in 1969, Lindsay lost the Republican nomination to John J. Marchi but received the endorsement of the Liberal Party and defeated Marchi and Democrat Mario Procaccino in the general election.

During his second term, Lindsay's scatter-site housing program—building public housing projects (with mostly minority tenants) in predominantly white neighborhoods—generated more protests from middle-class whites. Switching to the Democratic Party, Lindsay was among the candidates for the presidency in 1972. After his poor showing in the Democratic primaries, Lindsay announced that he would not seek a third mayoral term.

Credited for his innovative social programs, Lindsay paid for increased municipal expenditures with new taxes and heavy borrowing. These policies led to a big increase in the city's deficit, and Lindsay's mayoral successors blamed him for the city's fiscal crisis in 1975. After leaving office in 1974, Lindsay practiced law, appeared as a television personality, and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1980. He died of complications from Parkinson's disease in 2000.