Mayor John Lindsay

This collection features a selection of digitized WNYC audio tapes from New York City Mayor John Lindsay's press conferences, ceremonies, speeches, and addresses. Lindsay was the mayor of New York from 1966 to 1973, but the bulk of this collection is from his first 3 years in office.* During those three years Lindsay would spend much of his time struggling with labor issues, municipal corruption, and civil unrest and poverty. All of these subjects and more are captured here.

The two best known labor obstacles he faced during his tenure as mayor were undoubtedly the Transit Workers Strike of 1966, which began on his first day in office, January 1, 1966, and the Teacher’s Strike of 1968. These were not the only times he went head-to-head with organized labor however, with Lindsay confronting strikes, stoppages, sit-ins, and slowdowns from sanitation workers, welfare caseworkers, cab-drivers, and others, in a seemingly incessant struggle to keep a fragile city government running.

Corruption didn’t help. Lindsay dealt with graft in both the Police and the Sanitation departments in the early years of his administration. The latter case hit especially close to home, with one of Lindsay’s friends finding himself in its center.

The mid-to-late ‘60s were a also time of riots and unrest in urban areas throughout the United States. Lindsay spent much of his time in office trying to come to grips with the problems in Harlem, Bed-Stuy, The Bronx, and elsewhere, finding ways to combat the poverty that he saw as the root of the those problems. In 1967, he would become de facto head of the Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders, appointed as vice-chairman by President Johnson.

But thankfully, it wasn’t all trials and travails. Lindsay found time in his administration to pal around with Mrs. Brady, Florence Henderson, cutting a tune for the Night Owls in ‘66, and was able to spend a few relaxing “mayor’s conference” days in Hawaii in ‘67. He was also able to swear-in countless dedicated civil servants, many of whom can be heard again here, for the first time in decades.

Scans of program notes and other ephemera are available on request.

Audio is courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives.

*(Facing a 1971 budget crisis, Lindsay and the Board of Estimate were forced to slash the Municipal Broadcast Services staff by 50%)

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This web resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.

Any views, findings, conclusions, recommendations expressed in this web resource do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.