Black New Yorkers Recall Giuliani’s Tenure As Mayor Before 9/11 — And Not Too Fondly

Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s announcement that he has launched an exploratory committee for a 2008 presidential bid hasn’t exactly brought cheers to black New Yorkers.

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Before 9/11, however, Giuliani was under attack for his combative relationship with the black community and took a lot of heat for going too far after reducing crime in the city with aggressive campaigns against hot dog vendors, jaywalkers, cabbies and publicly-funded art — pulling funding from a city art museum after an exhibition that he found offensive — coming close to destroying individual civil rights. {snip}

“Giuliani’s record as mayor of New York was atrocious,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “He didn’t have one black deputy mayor the entire time he was mayor. In the second place, his other black appointments were marginal, and throughout the whole eight years he was in office, he had a confrontational relationship with the black community.”