Frank Rizzo was a Police Commissioner, then a two term Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia, 1971-1979, but not a high school graduate.

In 1976 Rizzo was called brutal and racist by black leaders, who led a recall election, that was unsuccessful. Term limits prevented him from succeeding himself.

In 1983, Rizzo, lost the Democrat Mayoral primary to the former city managing director, W. Wilson Goode, who defeated the Republican in the general election
to become the city's first elected black mayor.

In 1987 Rizzo ran again, this time as a Republican, but he lost the election
to Goode by less than 3 percentage points. Rizzo, then sixty-seven years of age, went into semiretirement.

In 1988, a movement urging Rizzo's candidacy for mayor in 1991 began to build, with the urging of the black community, which was plagued by the crack cocaine
epidemic, and realized belatedly that Rizzo was anti crime, not anti-black, and apologized for their racist rhetoric.

Even though Rizzo was going to run as a Republican!!

In the Republican primary against a popular Republican district attorney and Vietnam War hero, Ron Castille, Rizzo ran a brutal campaign, and won the primary.

With his momentum building, Rizzo died in Philadelphia just three months before the general election.

His funeral was one of the largest in Philadelphia history. Thousands waited in the July heat for hours to view for the last time one of Philadelphia's most famous citizens.
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American National Biography Online

Rizzo, Frank Lazzaro (23 Oct. 1920-16 July 1991),  police officer and politician, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Raffaele "Ralph" Rizzo, a police officer and tailor, and Theresa Erminio.

Both of his parents were Italian immigrants. Rizzo was raised in predominately Italian South Philadelphia, where he attended local schools but failed to graduate from high school.

He joined the navy in 1938 and received a medical discharge just one year later. Returning to Philadelphia, he worked in the steel and construction industries. In 1942 he married Carmella Silvestri; they had two children.

Rizzo joined the Philadelphia Police Department on 6 October 1943. An aggressive officer, he caught the eye of his superiors and was promoted to acting sergeant. Assigned to a center city district, Rizzo eventually became his own father's supervisor.

In 1952 the Democratic party took control of city hall after decades of Republican rule. A new home rule charter was adopted, giving city employees civil service protection. Rizzo was officially promoted to sergeant and assigned to the highway patrol. Continuing to ascend the promotional ladder, he became an inspector in 1959.

He entered the 1960s with a strong law and order reputation, but he was also known for his quick use of force and poor record in dealing with African Americans. The Democrats stayed in power, but the city was now under the control of the Irish Catholics and James H. J. Tate. Rizzo and Tate used each other to advance their careers.

Rizzo made quite an impression during his testimony before Senator John McClellan's Senate Subcommittee on Crime in Washington, D.C., in June 1962, when he made his first public comments attacking the courts and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for being "soft" on crime.

In 1963 Rizzo became a deputy commissioner and Tate was reelected mayor. In August of that year Philadelphia experienced urban riots, but unlike in other major metropolitan areas, the police handled the situation with only one death and few injuries. Deputy Rizzo and Commissioner Howard Leary, a low-key liberal, did not see eye-to-eye on keeping the peace and constantly clashed.

In February 1966 Leary left to become police commissioner of New York City. Later that year Arlen Spector was elected district attorney, the first Republican victory in the city in fifteen years, and he was a threat to unseat Tate as mayor. Rizzo, ever
present on the streets of Philadelphia, led his police force in confrontations with civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protestors.

In May 1967, a year of more urban unrest throughout the country, Rizzo was named commissioner of police, and the city council granted Mayor Tate emergency powers. Philadelphia remained quiet through the summer, and with Rizzo's help, Tate defeated Spector for mayor by a small margin. On 4 April 1968 Martin Luther King,
Jr., was assassinated, but again Philadelphia remained calm.

Rizzo's reputation for law and order caught the eye of Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon, who was running in part on law and order himself. Rizzo made plans to run for mayor in 1971, and the two major parties vied for the honor.

Rizzo preferred to run for mayor as a Republican but chose the Democratic party as his best chance to win. Law and order was becoming an issue in urban and national politics beyond Philadelphia.

While Rizzo was a unique politician, he also represented that national trend. The Democrats needed Rizzo to hold onto the white blue-collar voters, who were defecting to the law and order Republicans.

Rizzo won the Democratic primary, then defeated his Republican opponent with 71 percent of the vote. Just two weeks later Rizzo visited President Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover in Washington, becoming one of the best-known mayors in the United States.

In 1975 Rizzo ran for reelection and defeated a prominent black independent candidate, who finished second, and the Republican candidate, who was a distant third. Mayor Rizzo's major campaign issue was his fulfilled promise not to raise taxes during his first term. However, keeping this pledge forced him during his
second term to enact the largest tax increase in Philadelphia history to that date.

This tax increase was the catalyst for a recall movement begun in 1976 by a coalition of black leaders, labor unions, and liberal groups such as the Americans for Democratic Action, the ACLU, and the newly created Philadelphia party.

Rizzo was a symbol of blue-collar, white ethnic pride to his supporters and a brutal, racist police force to his detractors. The recall effort needed more than 145,000 signatures and collected at least 211,000, but Rizzo's supporters challenged the validity of the signatures. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court settled the issue in a September 1976 decision that struck down the entire Philadelphia recall process.

Rizzo wanted to run again, but the Philadelphia city charter limited the mayor to only two consecutive terms. Rizzo began an unsuccessful campaign to change the charter. On 11 September 1980 a committee was formed to revise the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter to allow the mayor to serve for more than two consecutive
terms, and the question was placed on the November ballot. The vote was 85 percent against the measure.

The 1980s began with a new mayor in city hall. The incumbent decided not to run again in 1983, and Rizzo, courted by the Republicans, ran as a Democrat.

He lost the primary to the former city managing director, W. Wilson Goode, who defeated the Republican in the general election to become the city's first elected black mayor. In 1987 Rizzo ran again, this time as a Republican, but he lost the election to Goode by less than 3 percentage points.

Rizzo, sixty-seven years of age, went into semiretirement. At the end of 1988 he accepted a spot as a radio talk show host on one of the local stations, and with this exposure a movement urging his candidacy for mayor began to build. With the support in the black community, which was plagued by the crack cocaine epidemic, he decided to run in the Republican primary against a popular Republican district attorney and Vietnam War hero, Ron Castille. A third candidate split the vote, but Rizzo ran a brutal campaign against Castille and won the primary. With his momentum building, Rizzo died in Philadelphia just three months before the general election.

His funeral was one of the largest in Philadelphia history. Thousands waited in the July heat for hours to view for the last time one of Philadelphia's most famous citizens.

Rizzo was one of the last of the powerful big city mayors. From his first days on the police force to his last days running for office, he was a major presence in the everyday lives of the citizens of Philadelphia. A biographer concluded that few men
in history have been their own political party. Rizzo's admirers followed him not because he was a Democrat or a Republican but because he was Rizzo.

Bibliography

S. A. Paolantonio, Frank Rizzo: The Last Big Man in Big City America (1993), a complete biography of Rizzo written by a Philadelphia newspaper reporter, is objective and well written.

Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1972 (1973), discusses the
relationship between Richard Nixon and Rizzo.

Jonathan Rubinstein, City Police (1973), is a detailed study of the Philadelphia police
and Rizzo written by an author who worked the streets with Rizzo's beat cops.

Fred Hamilton, Rizzo (1973), and Joseph R. Daughen and Peter Binzen, The Cop Who Would Be King (1977), are mostly negative and concentrate on his political career.

Extensive obituaries are in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Michael A. Cavanaugh
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Citation:
Michael A. Cavanaugh. "Rizzo, Frank Lazzaro";
http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00694.html;
American National Biography Online Jan 2004

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