Editing 1951 Reform Movement (section)

== The Reform Era ==

Clark served as mayor from 1952 to 1956, implementing reforms that transformed city government. He hired professional administrators, often from outside Philadelphia, to run city departments. He attacked discrimination in city employment and contracts. He launched urban renewal projects intended to modernize the city's aging physical plant. His administration was not without controversy—reformers sometimes seemed more interested in efficiency than in serving ordinary Philadelphians—but the contrast with machine government was stark. Philadelphia became a national model of urban reform, attracting attention from planners, political scientists, and reformers in other cities.<ref name="peirce"/>

Dilworth succeeded Clark as mayor in 1956 and served until 1962. More politically adept than Clark, Dilworth built a Democratic organization that could win elections while maintaining reform principles—a balance that proved difficult to sustain. The city continued modernizing under his leadership, though tensions between reform ideals and political realities became more apparent. Dilworth resigned to run unsuccessfully for governor, and his successors struggled to maintain reform momentum. By the late 1960s, Philadelphia's Democrats had built their own organization that, while different from the Republican machine, was not entirely what reformers had envisioned.<ref name="weigley"/>