Written by Taryn Flaherty and Safaya Smallwood

_{Street sign marking No Goode Way.}

Located at the intersection of N 59th Street and Overbrook Avenue, No Goode Way is the name organizers (including Mike Africa, Jr.) have given W. Wilson Goode, Sr. Way, a street dedicated to former Philadelphia mayor Wilson Goode. It was on May 13, 1985, during his mayoral tenure, that Goode authorized the bomb dropped on the MOVE Organization which killed 11 people, including six adults and five children. After the bombing, while the Police Commissioner and Fire Department Chief issued orders to deliberately “let the fire burn,” Mayor Goode watched on television, doing nothing to prevent the raging inferno as it spread, destroying the entire block of 61 homes. Neither Goode nor any government official was held accountable for the crimes they committed against their own community.

The street sign was dedicated in September 2018, proposed and approved by both the mayor and the city council, without consulting community members or heeding their protests. Mama Maisha Ongoza, an elder community leader who lived through the bombing of MOVE, created a shrine to the victims at the base of the street sign as a form of protest, which was later destroyed by the city. Among the protestors at the dedication ceremony of the street sign, Ongoza spoke powerfully denouncing the monument to state violence, stating, “People from around the world are appalled that we have done this…You talk about wanting to reconcile, well the first step is taking down that sign.” Other community members and protestors similarly questioned why a mayor responsible for burning down two city blocks should have a street sign named after him. 

Protests against the street sign continued into 2020, with the Black Philly Radical Collective issuing a list of 13 demands for the City of Philadelphia to take action against the repression, criminalization, and violence against Black communities and bodies, after international protests following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The third demand calls for the city to immediately and permanently remove all symbols of state violence, a stipulation that includes No Goode Way. The fight to remove the street sign is ongoing: In the words of Mama Maisha Ongoza, “I’m retired, I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, I live right around the corner. I’m going to bring my chair, and my cane, and all my other retirees who are offended by this. This is a protracted struggle, and we are in it to win it. We are morally compelled to remember those 11 people.”

_{Protesters gather in front of Wilson Goode Sr.’s house to chant the names of those who died in the MOVE bombing.} 

---

Bibliography

Allison and Ariel. “Black Philly Radical Collective List of Demands.” The Center for Social Impact Strategy.

Conde, Ximena. “Protesters want Mayor Goode street sign removed in Philly.” WHYY. 2020.

Conde, Ximena. “Protesters Press City to Remove Street Sign for Former Philly Mayor Goode, Citing MOVE Bombing.” WHYY. 2020.

“No Goode Way.” hate5six. 2020.

Rolen, Emily. “Protesters to attend the ‘W. Wilson Goode Sr. Way’ naming ceremony.” Philly Voice. 2018.