Philadelphia Clerics Deplore Racial Unrest, Urge Harmony

Catholic, Protestant, Islamic and Jewish leaders, spurred by a month of sporadic racial demonstrations and violence, joined together Monday in an appeal for racial harmony throughout the city.

Fifteen leaders of various denominations met with Mayor W. Wilson Goode and gave him a letter condemning racial prejudice and violence as “utterly contrary to the common standards of common decency.”

Goode urged religious leaders to take a stand for unity after hundreds of angry whites in southwest Philadelphia gathered at the homes of an interracial couple and a black couple and chanted, “Beat it!” and, “We want them out!”

Home Torched

Arsonists torched the black family’s home just days after it had moved out, despite a state of emergency declaration that increased police protection in the neighborhood.

In another neighborhood, East Falls, police last week found an unexploded pipe bomb at the home of a woman whose father was black and whose mother was white. Police believed the incident was racially motivated.

“I believe that the senseless acts of bigotry, violence and hatred that recently occurred in southwest Philadelphia and East Falls are very much out of character with the majority of beliefs of Philadelphians,” Goode said.

The religious leaders’ letter said: “We, the undersigned clergy, acknowledge and affirm that all good and decent people in our city desire to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors regardless of color.”

Groups Included

The religious groups represented included World Community of Al-Islam in the West, the Religious Society of Friends, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Board of Rabbis, the Philadelphia Presbytery, the Cardinal’s Commission on Human Relations and Urban Relations, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church, the Philadelphia Baptist Assn. and several other ministers’ groups.

In a related development, Leah Gaskin White, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, said her group uncovered no evidence of blockbusting in the southwest Philadelphia neighborhood.

Residents of the predominantly white neighborhood had accused real estate agents of using the presence of the newly arrived black and interracial couples to frighten white residents into selling their homes.