Also this issue:

Paki-Slammed
The feds' July 3 predawn raid in South Philly has the local Pakistani community crying foul.
-Daniel Brook

Play Missy for Me
A 14-year-old fur ball was the cat's meow in one North Philly neighborhood. Then she was killed by a pit bull.
-Deborah Bolling

Sins of the Fathers
Life has been tough for a couple of sons of bosses.
-Brendan McGarvey

Remembering Buddy
-Mary F. Patel

Fisher Swims Free for Now
-Daryl Gale

July 12-18, 2002

city beat

Over the Rainbow

Thomasâ promise: Grays Ferryâs newest committee person, Katherine Thomas, hopes to reach out to everyone there.

: Michael T. Regan

Can an African-American woman represent the needs of black-and-white Grays Ferry?

by Jenn Carbin

Bob Wilbowe and the South Philadelphia Rainbow Committee, a neighborhood association based in Grays Ferry, have big plans. Those plans include recruiting “dependable and dedicated people” for the committee, issuing membership cards and bringing back a dues system, with the money going to support both goodwill gestures on the part of the committee and administrative tasks. There is the voter-registration drive this summer and a plan to drum up citizen donations for Mayor Street’s Operation Safe Streets. What seems most dear to Wilbowe’s heart, however, is his plan to broaden the influence of the Rainbow Committee by running members for political positions big and small.

Katherine Thomas, a member of the committee since its founding in 1985, is the group’s first candidate and represents its first political victory. In May, Thomas became, according to community leaders, the first African-American committee person elected to the 24th Division of the 36th Ward. The division includes part of Grays Ferry. Thomas is one of two Democratic committee people elected this time around for the division; Nancy Eck is the other.

Wilbowe, who says he wants “to strengthen relationships between all peoples” in his neighborhood, says this positioning is the most effective way to bring “new flavor” to Grays Ferry and the larger area. He likes to say the all-black Rainbow aims to do things “different and better,” no doubt referring in part to the Grays Ferry Community Council (GFCC), which has been criticized for not reaching out to blacks in the area.

A few weeks ago, at the Rainbow Committee’s next-to-last meeting before summer break, Wilbowe and a few members, including the 66-year-old Thomas, were talking about the somewhat unique perch Thomas occupies in the neighborhood, where she has lived on the same street for 34 years and raised nine children with her husband, Arthur. She’s been a block captain for several years. With fellow Rainbow members, she has organized street clean-ups, youth activities at Vare Recreation Center, and social-service referrals for low-income families and senior citizens.

Thomas understands her value to Rainbow. “People around here know who I am -- black people know me, and I know a lot of white people.” (Dan Lynch of the GFCC, when reached by phone, said he had heard of Thomas’ win, but didn't know her. Joe Markey, a committee person for the 27th Division of the 36th Ward, said the same.)

It seems the very busy Thomas was a reluctant candidate, however. Wilbowe, who founded the committee with his late wife Irene, says Thomas was pretty much the obvious choice, but he admits “it took a year” to persuade her to run. Thomas has tried to slow down; four years ago she quit her gig as a gospel singer, for which she toured on weekends for three decades, to be home more.

Thomas says Rainbow members felt that her blackness would be beside the point to a lot of white Grays Ferry residents. “They were like, ‘If anybody can pull this off, Miss Katherine, you can!’ They kind of pushed me.”

According to Wilbowe, Thomas’ built-in reputation and a “foot patrol” campaign made a victory fairly easy. It’s encouraged him. “We got a little leverage, now let’s start doing things a little differently. There’s hope over the Rainbow. I think good things are gonna come.”

He’ll say a few days later, “I’m thinking of running for [state] senator.”

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February 6, 2003
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