Edward Koch
Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch
Edward Koch was born in 1924 to a Jewish family. Later on, the family moved to Newark, New Jersey. From 1941 to 1943, Koch attended City College of New York. In 1946, he was enlisted into the United States Army where he earned two Battle Stars as a Combat Infantryman. In 1946, Koch began attending New York University’s School of Law, where he received his law degree in 1948. He began his political career as a liberal, taking positions such as opposition against the Vietnam War and marching in the South for Civil Rights. In 1977, Koch ran for New York City Mayor in the Democratic Primary. “According to historian Jonathan Mahler, the blackout that happened in July of that year, and the subsequent rioting, helped catapult Koch and his message of restoring public safety to front-runner status.” Koch ran for two more terms and was elected for both of them. Koch’s stance on AIDS was that he understood that money had to be taken away from the health agencies, otherwise, the City would have had to declare bankruptcy.
OUR INTERVIEW WITH FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR EDWARD KOCH