Paterson, David Alexander

Impact on the world

Assumed New York's governorship in March 2008 after Governor Eliot Spitzer's resignation amid a prostitution scandal, becoming the third African American to serve as a U.S. state governor and the first legally blind person ever to hold that office; he guided the state through the worst of the 2008 financial crisis before withdrawing from his own 2010 campaign amid a separate corruption controversy.

Life & background

Paterson, who lost most of his vision to an early childhood infection, traces his ancestry on his mother's side to enslaved people in North and South Carolina and on his father's side to the Caribbean. As New York's lieutenant governor, he assumed the governorship in March 2008 following Eliot Spitzer's resignation over a prostitution scandal, becoming the third African American to serve as a U.S. state governor and the first legally blind individual to hold that office in American history. His tenure coincided with the depths of the Great Recession, during which he pushed through significant state budget cuts; he initially sought a full term in 2010 but withdrew from the race amid a separate ethics controversy involving a state trooper assigned to his security detail.

Sources

1. Washington Post (Who are the five Black governors who came before Maryland's Wes Moore?); CBS Baltimore; National Governors Association; New York State Hall of Governors (Empire State Plaza); BlackPast.org