IN GOODE FAITH. ( W. Wilson Goode. Philadelphia's First Black Mayor

I have always tried to do what's right. My mama taught me that. But in the world of politics, doing what's right may not get you the results you want. In fact, you may get what you don't want.
Few would disagree that I was a good and dedicated public servant. At times, I was a bit too trusting, but I have always believed that the public interest comes first. I always fought for the underdog, for those at risk, for the common good. And for the past eight years that's been a full-time job - seven days a week, sixteen, seventeen, sometimes eighteen hours a day. I put in those hours because I wanted to solve every problem I could every day I held elected office. But that left very little time for reading a book, much less writing one. And for years I have been yearning to tell my story, in my own way, in my own book.
This book gives me a chance to tell the untold stories, to reveal secret meetings, to talk openly about special deals.
For the first time, I share my real feelings about MOVE, about what really happened - about an assault by police on the MOVE house that was so fierce and deadly that it makes the assault on Rodney King look like child's play.
But eveil that's not the whole story. In Goode Faith is the whole story. It's about my being born in the South with a speech impediment so severe I would go for weeks without talking in school. It's about my father who took to the bottle to ease the frustration of being trapped in an unjust system, then turned on his own family in violent rages. It's about my abiding faith in God that helped me overcome a debilitating lack of self-esteem to attain the lofty position of mayor of the fifth-largest city in the United States.
It's about my never quitting, my never giving up, no matter what the odds. It's about my successes. It's about my failures. It's about my life.
It's about living in Goode faith.

It is unfortunate that Goode, Philadelphia's first African American mayor (he held office from 1984-1992), will probably be remembered mainly for one of the most terrible events in his city's history. On May 13, 1985, the police department, trained by Goode's notorious predecessor Frank Rizzo ("I'm gonna make Attila the Hun look like a faggot") bombed the headquarters of MOVE, a controversial, mostly black political group, killing 11 people and burning down a two-block residential area. Writing with Stevens, manager of news services at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Goode, now a faculty member at Eastern College in Pennsylvania, explains how the tragedy happened. He also recounts the astonishing story of his rise from sharecropper poverty in North Carolina through college and the military and into the maelstrom of politics in the City of Brotherly Love, where he evidently never learned to mistrust anyone, causing a newspaper to describe him as "too good to be mayor." Photos not seen by PW. 15,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Goode, Philadelphia's first black mayor, traces his early life in a North Carolina sharecropping family, his adolescent and teen years in the North, and his young adulthood in school and military service. His remembrances reflect the era of emerging black political influence in America's largest cities. He also recounts his political and professional experiences with the Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement, in the Black Political Forum, as chair of the state Public Utility Commission, as managing director of Philadelphia, and as mayor. For political analysts and urban scholars, Goode's discussion of his term as mayor, especially the details of the MOVE fiasco in 1985 and his conflicts with former mayor Frank Rizzo, will be of particular interest and value. Informed and general audiences will also find this a lucidly written and informative volume. Recommended for most collections.
- William Waugh Jr., Georgia State Univ., Atlanta
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.