November 2, 1971: Frank Rizzo Is Elected Mayor of Philadelphia

November 2, 1971: Frank Rizzo is elected Mayor of Philadelphia. This is cheered by many, and feared by many others.

Francis Lazzaro Rizzo was born on October 23, 1920 in Philadelphia. After serving in World War II, he became a policeman, and in 1967 rose to become Commissioner. At that time, Philadelphia had one of the highest percentages of black policemen of any major city, 21 percent, with 27 percent of new hires being black. But by the time Frank Rizzo left the office to run for Mayor in 1971, the percentage was down to 18 percent, and the hiring rate to 8 percent. His other actions, including raiding a Black Panther Party office in 1970, also led to the perception that he was racist.

When he ran in 1971, he had a 3-word platform: "Firm but fair." Getting the support of the city's labor unions, as well as people afraid of crime, he won the Democratic Primary, defeating Congressman Bill Green, among others; and then the general election, defeating Thacher Longstreth, a Republican who was on the City Council. Rizzo won 52.8 percent of the popular vote, Longstreth 46.4. His margin of victory in the popular vote was 48,000 votes.

Taking office on January 3, 1972, he acted as though he had won in a landslide. Former District Attorney (1952-56) and Mayor Richardson Dilworth (1956-62) accused him of using the police for political espionage. Later in the year, Rizzo crossed party lines, and endorsed President Richard Nixon for re-election. He thought it would get the city more federal funding, and he was right.

Certainly, Rizzo governed like he was Nixon's kind of guy. As the comedian Dick Smothers would have said, That was not a compliment. It alienated the city's Democrats and the city's media. Rizzo famously got into a feud with City party chairman Peter Camiel, and both men took a lie-detector test. Camiel passed his test, Rizzo flunked his, and thus ended Rizzo's 1974 campaign for Governor of Pennsylvania.

It didn't stop him from riding the city's white neighborhoods to get re-elected Mayor in 1975. It didn't help that the opposition to him was divided, between the Republican nominee, Councilman (and later Congressman) Tom Foglietta, and a 3rd-party campaign by Charles Bowser, executive director of the Philadelphia Anti-Poverty Action Committee (and later a Deputy Mayor). It was no contest: Rizzo won 57 percent of the vote, Bowser 24, Foglietta 18.

Rizzo had his landslide, and his mandate. He had told one of his cops, John Timoney, later to serve as Commissioner, "Just wait after November. You'll have a front row seat, because I'm going to make Attila the Hun look like a faggot."

He got the Center City Commuter Connection built, uniting the former Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads under the commuter umbrella of the SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). As part of this, he got Market East Station (now named Jefferson Station) and The Gallery at Market East shopping mall built, although neither was completed until after he left office.

But there was, indeed, more police brutality on his watch. It didn't help that he hired his brother Joseph as Fire Commissioner. A move to recall him failed on constitutional grounds before it could be put on the ballot.

Like Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg in New York a generation later, he tried to get the law changed to allow himself to run for a 3rd term in 1979. Like Giuliani in 2001 but unlike Bloomberg in 2009, Rizzo failed, as Bowser led a legal effort to stop it. Bill Green, one of his defeated 1971 opponents, was elected, winning 52 percent of the vote in a 3-way race.

Rizzo ran again in 1983, still officially a Democrat. His main opponent was Wilson Goode, the Commissioner of the Public Utility Commission, running to be the city's 1st black Mayor. Rizzo made the mistake of telling people, "Vote white," and enough people of all races were angered enough that Goode got 52 percent of the vote, to Rizzo's 43. Goode won the general election. Rizzo ran again in 1987, finally having officially switched to the Republican Party, and it was close: Goode got 51.1 percent, Rizzo 48.9, with a 14,000-vote margin of victory.

In 1991, with Goode term-limited, Rizzo, at age 70, made his 5th run for Mayor (or his 6th, depending on how you look at it). He just barely won the Republican nomination over State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille, a margin of 1,400 votes. He was preparing to face Ed Rendell, former District Attorney (1978-86) and an unsuccessful Mayoral candidate in 1987.

Like former segregationists George Wallace and Strom Thurmond before him, Rizzo knew that his views made him a relic of a time when racism was much more common. He knew he had to adjust to a new political reality. On July 12,  he walked through the largely black 52nd Street neighborhood in West Philadelphia with community leaders. It seemed to help his chances. But, 4 days later, on July 16, he suffered a fatal heart attack at his campaign headquarters, and died.

Instead of nominating the runner-up, Castille, the Republicans nominated Joseph M. Egan Jr., a longtime economic development figure in the city, to take Rizzo's place on the ballot. Rendell won easily, was re-elected in 1995, was elected Governor in 2002 and 2006, and also served as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

On January 1, 1999, a statue of Rizzo was unveiled, in front of the Municipal Services Building, across the street from the north front of City Hall. The new statue of Civil War-era baseball player and black activist Octavius Catto is on the south side of City Hall. I wish it was on the north side, so he could have stared Rizzo down. On June 3, 2020, accepting the will of the Black Lives Matter protests, Rizzo's statue was removed.

Frank Rizzo Jr. was elected as a Republican to the City Council, serving from 1996 to 2012.

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November 2, 1971 was a Tuesday. In spite of the time of year, there was 1 baseball result worth reporting: The Baltimore Orioles' Pat Dobson pitched a no-hitter against the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants‚ winning 2-0 at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo. It was the 1st no-hitter in the history of exhibition games between Japanese and American teams. The Orioles compiled a record of 12-2-4 on their tour of Japan.

Football was in midweek. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns, 108-101 at the Chicago Stadium. And the Golden State Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets, 106-91 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Cazzie Russell scored 43 points for the Warriors.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Memphis Pros, 123-109 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Carolina Cougars, 137-116 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. Jim McDaniels led all scorers on the night with 45 points.

* The Denver Rockets beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 133-114 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. Ralph Simpson (not to be confused with Ralph Sampson) scored 42 points for the team that would later become the Denver Nuggets.

* And the Virginia Squires beat the Utah Stars, 122-119 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.