COVER STORY: PHILADELPHIA (PA) ALUMNI SENIOR KAPPAS
the racial barrier. In addition to that, I am proud of the fact that I was the first chairman of the commission that returned budget dollars back to the treasury and developed a town meeting format for the first time in its history the commission went around the State and listened to concerns of the rate payers. Q: Discuss what led to your decision to enter the mayoral race in 1983? A: In November 1982, I was serving as the City’s first African Americans Man- aging Director – having been appointed by the then Mayor William H. Green, III. I had been by all accounts the most physical Managing Director in the his- tory of the City and the most popular. There had been much discussion about my running for Mayor when Mayor Green announced he would not run for a 2 nd term – I immedi- ately within 30 seconds made a de- cision I was going to run for Mayor and made the announcement the next morning. I had made history as the first member and chairman of the PUC and as Managing Direc- tor, I wanted to break the racial barrier after 300 years the City had never had an African American mayor and I felt that my work as Managing Director qualified me to take the next step. An equal incen- Frank Rizzo, who had been a menace to African Americans for more than two decades. Of course, the rest is history – I ran and defeated Frank Rizzo in the Primary Election and become Phila- delphia’s 95th Mayor and defeated him again in the general election in 1987. Q: What of your accomplishments are you most proud of during your mayoral- ship? A: I am most proud of the fact that I ap- pointed more African American men and women to key positions in government than all the mayors before and since combined. I provided more contracts to African American and women of all the mayors before and after me provided. I started the first Literacy Program of tive was that I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to defeat
any city in the country. I started the first program in the country for homeless men and women. I established the first office dealing with AIDS in the country. I was able to put more African American Lawyers in the “Red Book” than any city in the country. Most importantly, I opened up government to people and had them feeling comfortable in coming to city hall. Finally, I was responsible for a dramatic change to the skyline of the city – that is now the talk of the country because prior to 1984, the tallest point in the city was the tip of William Penn’s Hat at the top of the city hall building. Q: What was your focus when you worked in the US Department of Educa- tion?
my masters and doctorate to what God wanted me to do. Since 1996, I have averaged about 30 sermons a year by preaching across the country but mostly in the Philadelphia area. Q: Please discuss what led to you being awarded the Purpose Prize. A: In 2000 after leaving the Depart- ment of Education, I organized a program called Amachi to work with children of the incarcerated. Over the next 6 years, I built a national program that mentored more than 200,000 children (now 350,000 children) in all 50 states. The Purpose Prize is given to one who is over 62 years of age who created a program that impacted a sig- nificant population. The Purpose Prize was given to me because I organized and expanded the Amachi Program to serve children of the incarcerated across the country – they determined that this was an innovative, ground breaking work that deserved recogni- tion. Q: Why do you continue to serve? A: It is important in our lives that we go from Success to Significance – by every measure I have been successful in my life going from Sharecropper to Presi- dent and CEO of a non-profit that built 2000 low income houses to member and chairman of the PUC, Managing Direc- tor of the City of Philadelphia, two-term Mayor for Philadelphia, Deputy As- sistant for Education – I accepted the role as organizer of Amachi because it was time that I went from Success to Significance. God blessed me with suc- cess on many level and now I have the opportunity to give back to those who need help the most –the children of the incarcerated.
A: I served under President Bill Clin- ton as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education and supervised the 10 representatives of the Secretary across the country. The Secretary representa- tives were responsible for advocating educational priorities of the Secretary in regions across the country. My focus was to ensure that the Secretary priorities were advocated and implemented for many regions of the country as possible. Q: What inspired you to earn a Doctor of Ministry A: At age 28 I was called to the Ministry. I ran from God and at age 62 I surren- dered. I new that if I was going to be God’s spokesperson, I had to be quali- fied to do so – so I spent 4 years getting
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Publishing achievement for 105 years
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