Wilson Goode

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W. Wilson Goode (born August 19, 1938), the first African American Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was born into a family of tenant farmers in North Carolina. Arriving in Philadelphia in 1954, Goode promptly plunged into the life of the city. After graduating from John Bartram High School, he earned his degree from Morgan State University. After serving as a neighborhood leader, co-founder of the Black Political Forum, and manager of the unsuccessful 1971 mayoral campaign of State Representative Hardy Wiliams, earned a master's degree in government administration from the Fels Institute of Government [1] at the University of Pennsylvania.

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After African-American state senators complained that there had never been an African-American member of the Public Utilities Commission, Governor Milton J. Shapp began actively searching for one. His aide, Terry Dellmuth, knew Goode from his community and political activities, and recommended him. Shapp – in Goode's judgement perhaps mistaking him for someone else – nominated him and the Senate confirmed him despite a recent record of obstructing Shapp's PUC choices.

As a PUC Commissioner, Goode met with community groups around the state, studied the issues intensively, compiled a pro-consumer record, and forged good working relations with his fellow commissioners. He was soon elevated to the Chairmanship of the PUC, where he continued his pro-consumer policies but worked to limit PUC expenditures.

Dick Thornburgh's election as Governor of Pennsylvania in 1978 on the Republican ticket created a desire by Republicans to control the PUC. A Democratic PUC Commissioner, Helen O'Bannon, was appointed by Thornburgh as Secretary of Public Welfare.

Mayor of Philadelphia, and former United States Congressman, William J. Green (elected mayor in November, 1979) -- who had promised to appoint a black managing director after winning a racially divisive Democratic primary against former deputy mayor Charles Bowser -- kept his promise by appointing Goode Managing Director after members of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce actively joined key members of the black community and urged Green to appoint Goode. Seeking to unite the city of Philadelphia, Green went along with these recommendations and made Goode his managing director. Goode used this position to make himself extremely visible, attending community events around the clock. His campaigning for Mayor had already begun.

Then during the next primary election Green decided not to seek re-election when his wife, Patricia, became pregnant with their youngest child. Pat Green was in her 40's; due to health concerns for his wife and unborn child, Green withdrew from the race. Green stated that he did not want to put his wife through the stress of a campaign during the complicated pregnancy. His daughter, Maura Green, was born toward the end of his term.

When Green withdrew from the primary election for a 2nd term, Goode jumped into the race. He defeated Rizzo in the primary election went on to win the general election against former Green fundraiser and Philadelphia Stock Exchange Chairman John Egan, the Republican nominee.

Goode continued his heavy public schedule as Mayor, probably spending more time at public events than any of his Democratic predecessors. However, he failed to sell City Council on the necessity of a trash-to-steam plant to avoid using landfills, and the economics of landfill use soon changed, lowering landfill costs and raising incineration costs, making a trash to steam plant too expensive to be feasible.

Goode's tenure as Mayor was marred by the MOVE controversy in which police bombed the MOVE compound in West Philadelphia and wound up burning an entire city block when the fire raged out of control. MOVE was a radical back to nature group which, under the leadership of founder John Africa, had long made a nuisance of itself by ignoring city sanitation codes and barricading itself in houses when law enforcement came to enforce them.

While public opinion initially supported Goode, an investigation by a commission appointed by Goode held extensive public hearings in which Goode's judgement was held up to public scrutiny. The negative publicity engendered helped elect Republican Ron Castille as District Attorney in 1985, and encouraged former District Attorney and unsuccessful 1986 Democratic primary gubernatorial candidate Ed Rendell to oppose him for the Democratic mayoral nomination in 1987. Goode defeated Rendell for the Democratic nomination, and then defeated the Republican nominee, former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, in the general election. In both primary and general elections, Philadelphia's black voters stuck by Goode, although with less enthusiasm than he had aroused in 1983.

During the Green administration, the city budget had been balanced; the first few years of Goode's reign caused the city to go into debt again. Later, in an attempt to re-balance the city's budget, Goode pushed through tax increases raising the city's wage tax to an all-time high of 4.96%. Under his successors Ed Rendell and John F. Street, the city wage tax would gradually be reduced.

Goode was unable to maintain Philadelphia's black vote as a unified bloc. A well-funded and highly publicized attempt to purge Philadelphia City Councilman at Large David Cohen, a leading critic of Goode's trash to steam proposal, backfired as Cohen came in first in total votes in the 1987 Council at Large Democratic Primary for the five seats to be filled, and set an all-time record for most votes received for that position in a Democratic primary. (Eighteen years later, Goode would be the only former Mayor of Philadelphia attending Councilman Cohen's funeral. His son and Cohen's City Council colleague, W. Wilson Goode, Jr., would eulogize Cohen at a special memorial service held in Philadelphia's City Council.)

In the 1991 Democratic Primary, three blacks – former Councilman Lucien E. Blackwell, a strong Goode loyalist; George Burrell, a Goode critic allied with Congressman William Gray; and James White, Goode's managing director – faced white candidates Ed Rendell and Peter Hearn, a former Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Although White withdrew before the primary, Rendell won, getting 10% of the black vote as Blackwell and Burrell divided the rest.

Goode stayed active after leaving as Mayor, attending community meetings, hosting a radio show on WDAS, and holding mid-level positions in the U.S. Department of Education. He became active for a time in the personal development programs of Werner Erhard's Landmark Education, including the Landmark Forum, a successor to est. He earned a Ph.D. in theology at Eastern University, and became a highly regarded minister, leader of advocacy for faith-based initiatives, and leader of outreach to prisoners. He currently serves as a senior advisor to Public/Private Ventures where he oversees Amachi, a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents. He was recently awarded the Purpose Prize, a $100,000 award given to exceptional individuals over age 60 who are working to address critical social problems.

His son, W. Wilson Goode, Jr., was defeated for Councilman at Large in the 1991 Democratic Primary, but was appointed by Mayor Ed Rendell to a position in the city commerce department in 1992. The younger Goode was elected Councilman at Large in 1999, with the active support of Democratic mayoral nominee John F. Street, Chairman of the Council Appropriations Committee in the Goode Administration, and easily re-elected Councilman at Large in 2003.

The younger Goode received more votes in African American wards than any other councilman at large candidate, and was considered a possible 2007 Democratic mayoral candidate at the start of the the current Council term, but has since made clear his intention to run for re-election as Councilman-at-large in 2007.