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Anthony Williams, civil rights populist?

PHILADELPHIA—Insofar as the Democratic gubernatorial candidates were pigeonholed over the course of the campaign, state Senator Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia) overwhelmingly became known as the guy who supported school choice. And understandably so: His campaign was funded almost entirely be three suburban investors who back public vouchers for private schools.

But as he delivered a concession speech at Temple University Tuesday night, Williams sought to portray himself as something more: a civil rights leader.

To an a largely black audience at the Liacouras Center here, Williams said his campaign marked a milestone for issues of education and violence for “this auditorium” and that his campaign hearkened a “new civil rights movement.” It was his most direct argument in something that he’s been saying increasingly for weeks—that education is a “civil rights issue.”

Whether he has indeed sparked a political movement of any kind, of course, remains to be seen. He finished third in the voting behind primary winner Dan Onorato and Jack Wagner.

“For the first time in the state of Pennsylvania, they heard your voice,” Williams said. “We all won here tonight. This is the first time someone has run for governor who’s talked about the importance of life—your life. In three months, we’ve done more about the agenda related to this auditorium, to rural Pennsylvania, to urban Pennsylvania, to where the poor people are, working people are, true Democrats are, than anybody in this race.”

Throughout the speech, Williams sounded a populist tone, not only in his discussion of his campaign but also by his references to Mary J. Blige and Lil’ John, and even by the staging of a massive concert as his primary night party.

Asked by pa2010 what the “new civil rights movement” referred to, Williams described it as a return to the original movement of the 1960s, updated for the modern age.

“Where the distance between what one used to describe as a liberal and has evolved and is frankly a political label are all those people that are a part of the civil rights movement,” he said. “And so the civil rights movement that I talk about is the one people picked up the banner when people were denied access to a quality education, a clean environment, a woman’s right to choose, whatever it was. That was the original civl rights movement. We’re going to return to that. Through politics and political action, we’re going to do that.”

May 19, 2010 at 2:42 pm

--Andrew Thompson

Tags: Anthony Williams, Dan Onorato

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