Keith Haring for David Dinkins in 1989

Was this Keith Haring-designed campaign button created for David Dinkins’ 1989 mayoral run—or his second bid in 1993? 

I’d guess 1989.

For one thing, Haring—whose graffiti-inspired images and designs are icons of the 1980s downtown art world—had already died of AIDS-related complications by 1993.

But also, Dinkins’ first term as mayor didn’t exactly reflect the racial healing he campaigned on in 1989, largely thanks to the Crown Heights riots of 1991. 

It seems unlikely he would have campaigned on that same theme again two years later, when his opponent was once again former prosecutor Rudy Guiliani.