An Accident of Geography by Richard C. Blum

Author:Richard C. Blum
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626343351
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Published: 2016-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

Lucid in Crisis

Political commentators have observed over the years, beginning with the assassinations, how calm and purposeful Dianne is during times of public crisis. “I needed that ability when I became mayor,” she said, “because the city was falling apart.”9

Dianne credits her late father, Dr. Goldman, for his constant counsel. He had always urged her to research exhaustively and then look for the essential truth amid complex or conflicting ideas. Whatever the source, Dianne’s inner steel, her toughness, and her conviction were essential—and evident—as she carried on that day and in the weeks following.

Her first official comments as mayor were broadcast the night of the assassinations by the three commercial TV networks and reported with photographs the next day in national newspapers: “As president of the board of supervisors, it is my duty to inform you that both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot … and killed,” she said, gazing into the TV spotlights and photographers’ flashbulbs. She then paused for a few moments amid city hall staff and journalists’ shouts of “Quiet! Quiet!” before she added, to even greater shock and disbelief, “The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.”

White turned himself in to police and confessed to the killings that afternoon. Incredibly, a sympathetic jury returned a manslaughter verdict, not murder, at the conclusion of White’s trial six months later.

The city was stunned. “I thought he would get the death penalty,” Dianne has said. “He killed two people—no question about intent.” The verdict touched off major rioting in San Francisco’s gay community, in what became known as the White Night riots. Within a few years of his release from prison, White committed suicide.

A week after the assassinations, following a contested election among its members, the board officially named Dianne mayor by a one-vote margin. Under the most abhorrent circumstances, she now held the office she had dreamed of since high school. She had become the first woman to serve as mayor of any major city in the United States.

The following year would be the toughest of her career.

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