Stumping and Eating at Cellar's Restaurant in Brooklyn
Grover Whalen cooking steak, Courtesy of the New York Public Library
I recently completed a book on the history of black and Latino coalition politics in New York City from 1959 to 1989. The final chapter delves into the planning, organizing, and street level campaign to elect David Dinkins in 1989 and the role of organized labor and Latino activist played in that effort. Brooklyn’s Bill DeBlasio, the Democratic Party's nominee for mayor in 2013, began his political career volunteering on Dinkins’ 1989 campaign for mayor. DeBlasio would go on to work in the Dinkins administration. In 1989 Democrats in Brooklyn held a stumping and eating fund raiser for Dinkins at Cellar's Restaurant located at 250 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn. The group used steaks and seafood to surpass its $10,000 fund raising goal.
