Machine politics collapsed in Greenwich Village as reform insurgents defeated Tammany’s last boss

Evidence

The last boss of Tammany Hall, the once-notorious Manhattan Democratic Party organization, DeSapio anointed Robert F. Wagner Jr. as New York City mayor in 1953 and W. Averell Harriman as New York governor in 1954. In 1961, however, he lost the district leadership of Greenwich Village (a post he held for two decades) to an insurgent reformer. The same year Wagner would win re-election running a reform campaign that denounced his former patron. DeSapio was then defeated twice more as district leader by another reform candidate, future mayor Edward I. Koch. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1868

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader story of political change enabling the Village scene — institutional conditions shaping cultural space. — connects to: Reform-minded women saw Tammany politicos as instruments for social welfare — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 404