W. Wilson Goode’s election in 1983 as Philadelphia’s first black mayor was met with widespread enthusiasm and hope. As G. Fred Dibona, Jr., one of Goode’s early advisers, told the Wall Street Journal, “Never before did a mayor come into office with more genuine support from all communities, from the business community, from the neighborhoods.” The new administration inherited a volatile racial situation, a sagging urban economy, and a high unemployment rate, but Goode’s stunning performance as Philadelphia’s managing director in the early 1980s, as well as his popularity among the city’s large black population, seemed to make him an ideal messenger for change.

Yet seven years after Goode assumed office, Philadelphia stood at the brink of financial disaster, with a budget deficit of over $200 million, and the mayor shouldered much of the blame. Although various stop-gap measures saved the city from complete financial collapse, by the time Goode left office in January of 1992 his popularity had plummeted and his political clout had been seriously undermined.

When asked by New York Times columnist Michael Hinds to describe Goode’s tenure as mayor, budget advisory committee chairman William V. Donaldson called it “a case of failed good intentions.” Many of Goode’s critics agree that he was a highly intelligent and motivated administrator who was unable to find support for his programs from Philadelphia’s notoriously fractious city council or from the state government. All too often his plans went unimplemented. As Bruce Ransom wrote in his essay for Black Electoral Politics, “The ability to research and study city problems and produce technical reports initially drew praise, but the paucity of follow-up policies and programs was soon viewed more and more with jaundiced glances.” Dr. Sandra Featherman, director of Temple University’s Center for Public Policy, summed up Goode’s career to Michael Hinds as follows: “I don’t think he was a bad mayor; he tried hard to be a good mayor. But he was weak, not vindictive enough—and you have to be vindictive to manage something as complex as this city.”

Many factors had contributed to Philadelphia’s complexity, and Goode was not the first mayor to confront them. The nation’s fifth-largest city with a population nearly 50 percent black, Philadelphia had a history of racial tension. The situation was aggravated in the 1970s by the two

At a Glance…

Born Woodrow Wilson Goode, August 19, 1938, outside Seaboard, NC; son of Albert (a sharecropper) and Rozella (a sharecropper) Goode; married Velma Williams (an administrative assistant), 1960; children: Muriel, Natasha, W. Wilson, Jr. Education: Morgan State University, B.A., 1961; Wharton School, M.P.A., 1968. Politics: Democratic. Religion: Baptist.

Worked as a probation officer, a supervisor at a building maintenance firm, and an insurance claims adjuster during the mid- to late 1960s; involved in community affairs and active in First Baptist Church of Paschal; executive director of Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement, beginning in 1969; appointed head of Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission by Governor Milton J. Shapp, 1978; managing director of the city of Philadelphia, 1980-83; elected first black mayor of Philadelphia, November 1983; reelected mayor, 1987; barred by law from pursuing a third term; left office of mayor in January 1992. Military service: U.S. Army, 1962-63.

Selected awards: Commendation medal for meritorious service, U.S. Army, 1963; named Outstanding Young Leader of the Year by Jaycees, 1972; honorary degrees from College of the Holy Cross, Wittenberg University, Morgan State University, Lincoln University, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and other institutions.

Addresses: Home—2446 N. 59th St., Philadelphia, PA 19131.

mayoral terms of ex-police chief Frank L. Rizzo, whom many blacks saw as indifferent to the city’s institutionalized racism and the alleged brutality of its police force. In addition, despite Philadelphia’s history as the nation’s cradle of liberty, decades of corruption and urban decay had dampened the city’s civic spirit and created a sense of apathy; as one councilman told the Wall Street Journal, “The vast majority couldn’t care less.”

The seeds of Philadelphia’s financial problems could be traced back to 1850, when the state tried to contain the city by preventing it from annexing territory; this measure kept Philadelphia from following inner-city residents when they began moving out to the suburbs. The result was a dichotomy between a largely white middle-class suburban population and a poor, largely black, inner-city community.

Humble Beginnings

Much of Goode’s initial popularity among Philadelphians stemmed from his humble beginnings. He was born in abject poverty in a shack outside of Seaboard, North Carolina, the son of sharecroppers; Goode would later look back on the hardship of his early years as the source of his strength and determination. After World War II his family moved north to West Philadelphia, where Goode became an honor student at the local high school. He became the first member of his family to attend college, earning his B.A. from Morgan State University in 1961.

After a tour of duty in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1963, during which he rose to the rank of captain and was awarded a commendation medal, Goode worked as a probation officer, building maintenance supervisor, and insurance claims adjustor. A deeply religious man, Goode also became active in his local Baptist church; later he would become a deacon and even seriously consider a career in the ministry. Goode also continued his education, earning a master’s degree in public administration in 1968 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

A Community Servant

Goode began his career as a public servant in 1969, when he became executive director of the Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement, a nonprofit organization founded to revitalize neighborhoods and encourage construction of affordable housing. Through his work with the council and the public notoriety it earned him, Goode laid the foundation for his political career. He became a finalist for the Philadelphia Jaycees community awards and in 1972 was named Outstanding Young Leader of the Year by the same organization.

In 1978 Pennsylvania governor Milton J. Shapp appointed Goode head of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which regulates the state’s utility rates. While chairman of the committee, Goode investigated the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and helped ensure that the public was provided with a safe and continuous power source.

Road to the Mayor’s Office

In 1980 Mayor William J. Green appointed Goode as Philadelphia’s first black managing director. Goode worked tirelessly during his three years in this position, developing a “hands on” approach where he worked directly with neighborhood leaders on a variety of city problems, such as sanitation and urban decay. After his announcement of candidacy for mayor in 1983, he continued his efforts to reach “the man on the street” in an aggressive campaign. In the primary he swept nearly 98 percent of the city’s black vote and in November of 1983 won the election by a wide margin.

Unlike the black mayors of other major cities—Coleman Young of Detroit and former mayor Marion Barry of Washington, D.C., for example—Goode did not come into politics through involvement in black activism. Although sympathetic to Philadelphia’s racial situation, he downplayed the issue throughout his campaign and consciously distanced himself from the “black power” vote. His stance appealed to Philadelphia’s white establishment, and some of his closest supporters and advisers were white corporate executives. Since his background and credentials were admired by both white and black voters, he seemed, as put by the Wall Street Journal, “the ideal man to unite the city.”

Unveiled Promising Economic Policy

Economic development was Mayor Goode’s top priority upon taking office in January of 1984. Before the end of his first year in office he unveiled an economic strategy that he titled “Seizing Control of Our Destiny.” With the aid of an Economic Roundtable made up of prominent business leaders, Goode hoped to take advantage of Philadelphia’s many assets: the city’s location, educational and research institutions, port facilities, and other advantages would all be exploited in order to develop Philadelphia’s potential as a thriving urban center.

The Goode administration also developed other policies to help ease racial tension, unemployment, and the decline of Philadelphia’s inner city. A new six-member cabinet was appointed, with a membership divided equally among blacks and whites, and men and women. Goode led detailed studies into the problems of housing, dirty streets, and unemployment, oversaw the completion of a new commuter transit system, abolished a long-standing mercantile tax, and convinced owner Leonard Tose to keep his football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, in the city. Goode’s popularity during this early period of his administration is mirrored in the fact that he was seriously considered by Walter Mondale as his running mate in the 1984 presidential election.

The MOVE Incident

Critics, however, began to voice the opinion that Goode was better at developing policies than implementing them, and in May of 1985 an event occurred that would alter his political career forever. Members of MOVE, a black radical movement that espoused a “back-to-nature” lifestyle of eating natural foods, recycling waste, and renouncing modern conveniences, took over a row house in West Philadelphia. After complaints by neighbors the police were called in to evict them; when the police were unsuccessful Goode authorized the dropping of a bomb on the roof of the house. The resulting explosion and fire killed eleven people (including four children), destroyed 61 houses, and caused an estimated $8 million in damage. Goode avoided accepting responsibility for the incident until, according to Hinds, “a commission, appointed by him, reported its finding that he had been negligent, irresponsible and had ’abdicated his responsibilities as leader.’”

Despite his efforts to put the MOVE tragedy behind him, Goode’s reputation never fully recovered. Although he narrowly won reelection in 1987, he was increasingly dogged by charges that he was an ineffectual leader. Many complaints focused on his inability to gain the support of his own city council. As Goode told the Wall Street Journal, it was his distaste for “closed-door” politics that made his dealings with the council difficult: “I don’t understand the concept of government that says the mayor has to take other elected officials in the back room, make deals with them, twist their arms, [and] threaten them in order to get done what they ought to do. I’m not from that school.”

Faced Financial Crisis

Goode’s poor relationship with the council often had economic repercussions for the city. For example, in order to solve Philadelphia’s acute sanitation problems, he proposed the building of a “trash-to-steam” incinerator in South Philadelphia. The proposal immediately encountered neighborhood opposition, led by one of the council’s members. The mayor was unable to build public support for his project or reach a compromise with the council, and the proposal failed. As a result the city had to resort to an enormously expensive contract with a waste management company to haul refuse out of the city limits.

Goode’s inability to create a consensus in his own city council caught him up in a vicious cycle. As his second term progressed, he was faced with an increasing budget deficit. His attempts to build revenue through increased taxes were thwarted by the council, and other methods for raising funds, such as selling municipal buildings and cutting allocations for social services, met similar opposition. The result, when combined with skyrocketing costs and gross inefficiencies at all levels of the city government, was a financial crisis. This increasingly alarming situation affected Goode’s relationship with the state government as well; according to the Wall Street Journal, the state legislature was uneasy about providing Goode with funds, viewing his city, in the words of state senate majority leader F. Joseph Loeper, as “a place where state dollars pour into and disappear.”

In September of 1990 Goode announced that Philadelphia was on the brink of bankruptcy. The signing of an agreement in January of the following year for a $150 million loan from a consortium of banks and pension funds helped avert disaster, as did the appointment by the state of an Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority to evaluate Philadelphia’s spending plans and possibly sell the city bonds to cover its deficits. Yet the city remained on an uneasy financial footing; in June of 1991, at the end of the fiscal year, a $200 million deficit was reported.

Considered Career in Congress

Prohibited by law from seeking a third term as mayor of Philadelphia, Goode briefly considered pursuing the congressional seat vacated by state representative William H. Gray in 1991. The possibility of Goode’s candidacy met with some disapproval, further illustrating his lack of popularity in his hometown. Goode did not enter the race, deciding instead to stay in office and, as he told the Washington Post, provide Philadelphia with “continuity of leadership during its current financial crisis” and “give the new mayor a sound financial foundation to build on.” In November, Edward Rendell, a former district attorney, was elected as Goode’s successor; he took office in January of 1992.

Critics differ in their analyses of the successes and failures of Goode’s tenure as mayor of Philadelphia; perhaps he was, as he claimed in an article in Time, just a “victim of circumstance” who happened to be in office during a particularly difficult period in his city’s history. Perhaps he was, as one Philadelphia resident told the New York Times, “a nice man” who was “not qualified to be Mayor.” Perhaps, as Bruce Ransom has written, his inability to show strong leadership did reduce his administration to an ineffective “caretaker” organization.

Whatever the case, Goode’s undeniable intelligence and propensity for hard work, illustrated in his rise from a background of poverty and his successful three years as Philadelphia’s city manager, make him a significant role model for the next generation of African-American politicians. Goode chronicles his personal and political experiences—and includes his own account of the Philadelphia police department’s role in the controversial MOVE tragedy—in his 1992 autobiography In Goode Faith.