Justice
The Polarizing Mayor Who Embodied ‘Blue-Collar Conservatism’
Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia’s mayor from 1972 to 1980, appealed to “law and order” and white working-class identity—a sign of politics to come, says the author of a new book.
In the 1970s, Philadelphia, the fourth-largest city in America, stood on the brink of massive social change. The city’s black population was increasing rapidly, just as many of its manufacturing concerns were shutting down.
As white flight swept many older sections of the city, the only part of Philadelphia still adding population was the formerly agricultural Far Northeast. This area was a redoubt inside the city limits for white working-to-middle class people, who had evacuated their old neighborhoods as African-American and Puerto Rican families began moving in.