Black Voters Mattered: A Philadelphia Story

The idea for this book grew out of my deep appreciation for recorded history. I've learned that unless the facts are written, people will soon forget them. So it is important to document the history of the personalities and events that led to my election in1983 as the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, to properly record and connect events so that future generations will understand and appreciate our struggle and our achievements. This book attempts to connect some of the events and personalities of the U.S social and civil rights movements with the movement in the City of Philadelphia between 1968 and 1983 that resulted in a dramatic increase in Black political empowerment. While many of the individuals involved in these events were African Americans, there were also some non-African Americans who played crucial roles in bringing about the transformation. This book will attempt to chronicle all of their roles and put them in chronological order, so that those who read this in the future will know how these events took place.

The idea for this book grew out of my deep appreciation for recorded history. I've learned that unless the facts are written, people will soon forget them. So it is important to document the history of the personalities and events that led to my election in1983 as the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, to properly record and connect events so that future generations will understand and appreciate our struggle and our achievements. This book attempts to connect some of the events and personalities of the U.S social and civil rights movements with the movement in the City of Philadelphia between 1968 and 1983 that resulted in a dramatic increase in Black political empowerment. While many of the individuals involved in these events were African Americans, there were also some non-African Americans who played crucial roles in bringing about the transformation. This book will attempt to chronicle all of their roles and put them in chronological order, so that those who read this in the future will know how these events took place. Those who read it will see that the Black pioneers who pursued public office in Philadelphia during this time were driven and purposeful, and committed to the agenda of empowering Black Philadelphians. They recognized that politics was not the end game, but rather a means to achieving genuine social change and equal justice. It is hoped that political scientists and students of history will especially find this book useful. While the book looks at some events before 1950, the preliminary period of 1950 to 1968 was critical in bringing about the transformation that took place between 1968 and 1983. For purposes of clarity, this book will discuss the major events of my administration and the administrations of Philadelphia's subsequent mayors from 1992 to 2014, in order to illustrate the evolution of Black empowerment in the city and how these mayors came to be elected. Philadelphia has had three African American mayors.

Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. is the President and CEO of Amachi, Incorporated, a nationally acclaimed faith-based program for mentoring children of incarcerated parents; and Chairman and CEO of Self, Incorporated – a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving more than 600 homeless men and women. He is a Senior Fellow at the Fox School at the University of Pennsylvania. He became the City's first African American Mayor in 1984 and served two terms. Because of his innovative and ground-breaking work, he received two prestigious awards in 2006: the Civic Ventures Purpose Prize, and the Philadelphia Inquirer's Citizen of the Year Award. He is an ordained Baptist Minister since 1999 with more than 64 years of service at the First Baptist Church of Paschall located in southwest Philadelphia. Dr. Goode has served as an officer in the United States Army. He led ground-breaking work in faith-based housing, assisting churches in building more than 2,000 units for low and moderate income persons. And, he was the first African American member and Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. He broke racial barriers again with his appointment as Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia. He subsequently spent 7 years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education in the Clinton Administration. He left that position in 2000 to organize the Amachi program which has now served more than 300,000 children in 50 States. Dr. Goode is Chairman of the Philadelphia Leadership Foundation. He is a Board Member and Former Chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region, and the Free Library of Philadelphia, He is also former Chair of Partners for Sacred Places and the Cornerstone Christian Academy. He is a Board Member of America's Promise Alliance, Community In Schools of Philadelphia, and Eastern University. He is Chairman Emeritus of Leadership Foundations, and Emeritus Trustee of Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School. Dr. Goode has earned degrees from Morgan State University (BA), the University of Pennsylvania (MA), Palmer, Theological Seminary (D. Min.), and fourteen conferred honorary doctorates. He is a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and Kappa Alpha Psi. Dr. Goode and his wife of 58 years have one son, two daughters and two granddaughters.