The 1983 Philadelphia mayoral election saw the election of Wilson Goode. Goode won the Democratic nomination by defeating former mayor

Frank Rizzo Francis Lazarro Rizzo (October 23, 1920 – July 16, 1991) was an American police officer and politician. He served as Philadelphia police commissioner from 1968 to 1971 and mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. He was a member of the Democr ...

, as well as several minor candidates, in the Democratic primary. Goode was elected the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

mayor of Philadelphia.

Background

Before the election, a total of eighteen black mayors had been elected in United States cities with populations above 100,000. At the time, there were incumbent black mayors in three of the other five United States cities with populations above 1 million people,

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( Tom Bradley),

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(

Harold Washington Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st Mayor of Chicago. Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor in April 1983. He served as ma ...

), and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

(

Coleman Young Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit. Young had emerged from the far-left ele ...

). No Republican, and only Democrats, had been elected mayor since after the

1947 Philadelphia mayoral election The 1947 Philadelphia mayoral election saw the reelection of Bernard Samuel. , this is the last election in Philadelphia mayoral history won by a Republican and the last not won by a Democrat. Samuel defeated Democratic Party nominee, first-time ...

. At the time, blacks made up roughly 39% of registered voters in the city. White voters still outnumbered black voters 2 to 1. Registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans in the city by 4 to 1.

Democratic primary

Goode positioned himself as a candidate that could unite the city. This contrasted with many voters' perception that Rizzo had divided the city along racial and ethnic lines. Goode was fresh-faced, with this being his first campaign for elected office. He was also perceived as an efficient public servant. In the primary, more than 30% of white voters cast their votes for Goode. Race never became a major topic of the campaign. The race saw a record total of votes cast for a Democratic primary.

Ron Brown Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President of the United States, President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairm ...

, the deputy chairman of the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

, appeared at Goode's primary election night victory party at the Philadelphia Convention Center to promise the national party's support for the general election. The victory party was also attended by black mayors from other United States cities, including

Marion Barry Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second and fourth mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served ...

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Candidates

Declared

* George G. Britt, Jr., management consultant and perennial candidate * Anthony G. Bateman, attorney and former Assistant District Attorney * Stephen S. Douglas, former aide to

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...

and candidate for Governor in 1980 *

Wilson Goode Woodrow Wilson Goode Sr. (born August 19, 1938) is a former List of mayors of Philadelphia, Mayor of Philadelphia and the first African Americans, African American to hold that office. He served from 1984 to 1992, a period which included the c ...

, Philadelphia Managing Director * Frank Lomento, pretzel vendor and perennial candidate *

, former Mayor

Withdrew

* Thomas A. Leonard III, Philadelphia Register of Wills (to run as an independent)

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

Charles F. Dougherty Charles Francis Dougherty (born June 26, 1937) is an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district fr ...

, United States Representative for

Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district Pennsylvania's fourth congressional district, effective January 3, 2019, encompasses the majority of Montgomery County and a small sliver of Berks County in southeastern Pennsylvania. In the 2020 redistricting cycle, the Pennsylvania district ...

* John Egan, chairman of the

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), now known as Nasdaq PHLX, is the first stock exchange established in the United States and the oldest stock exchange in the nation. The exchange is owned by Nasdaq, which acquired it in 2007 for $652 million, a ...

Tom Gola Thomas Joseph Gola (January 13, 1933 – January 26, 2014) was an American basketball player and politician. He is widely considered one of the greatest NCAA basketball players of all-time. Gola was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball ...

, former City Controller and

Basketball Hall of Famer The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and prese ...

Results

Independents and third parties

Independent

* Thomas A. Leonard III, Philadelphia Register of Wills

General election

Goode was able to project a managerial image for himself, and was able to make an image that was "nonthreatening" to white voters.

Results

Exit polling indicated that Goode received 98% of the support in black neighborhoods. An examination of sample voting districts indicated that Goode received between 27 and 28% of the vote in white neighborhoods. It was argued that a white candidate with the same credentials as Goode would likely have received 55% of the vote in the white neighborhoods.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia mayoral election, 1983

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

1983 Pennsylvania elections 1980s in Philadelphia