Editing W Wilson Goode (section)

== MOVE and Tragedy ==

The defining event of Goode's mayoralty came on May 13, 1985, when a confrontation with the [[MOVE Organization]] ended in catastrophe. MOVE, a radical group that had clashed with police before, had established a fortified house on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. Neighbors complained; the city obtained arrest warrants. After failed negotiations, Goode authorized police action that escalated into disaster. Police fired thousands of rounds into the house, then dropped a bomb onto a rooftop bunker. The resulting fire killed eleven people, including five children, and destroyed sixty-one homes in the surrounding neighborhood.<ref name="anderson">{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=John |last2=Hevenor |first2=Hilary |title=Burning Down the House: MOVE and the Tragedy of Philadelphia |year=1987 |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York}}</ref>

The MOVE bombing devastated Goode's reputation. A special commission appointed to investigate concluded that Goode and other officials had acted recklessly. Critics demanded his resignation; some called for criminal charges that never came. Goode accepted responsibility while defending the decision to act against MOVE. The incident overshadowed everything else about his tenure; when Goode is remembered, the MOVE bombing is invariably mentioned. The tragedy was particularly painful because Goode, as the first Black mayor, had been expected to handle relations with Black communities better than his white predecessors.<ref name="countryman"/>