Politicians, friends wax nostalgically over pioneering black leader Hardy Williams

For a couple hours inside West Philadelphia's Bible Way Baptist Church last night, it was 1971 all over again - with distant echoes of trucks in the street blaring "Power to the People - It's the People's Power."

"I'm going to tell you something - Hardy Williams would have loved this funeral right about now," said state Rep. Dwight Evans, laughing as he offered a tribute just a few feet away from the open casket of Williams, the pioneering black political leader who died on Jan. 7 at age 78.

Evans was just one of a slew of top local pols who packed the front pews or spoke from the podium to recall how Williams, the longtime state senator who was the first major black candidate for mayor in 1971, inspired them into a life of public service.

One of those who praised Williams at last night's viewing and public tribute was Mayor Nutter: the third African-American to occupy the mayor's office after Williams launched what was then considered a quixotic quest for the job some 39 years ago.

"He knocked down so many doors, and he didn't ask permission - and he didn't apologize," said Nutter, who grew up in the 1970s at 55th and Larchwood, just a stone's throw from where Williams helped launch the city's independent black political movement.

Nutter was one of a host of speakers who laughed in recalling Williams' sometimes baffling speaking style, his passion for Philadelphia's most downtrodden, and his string of achievements that began at Penn State in the early 1950s, when he was the school's first black basketball player.

"In West Philadelphia, all you knew was just 'Hardy,' " Nutter said of the politico's first-name-only star-power status a generation ago.

Last night's memorial service, billed a "Tribute to Hardy Williams - the Man and the Movement," kicked off two days of services to honor Williams, who had been out of politics since retiring his state Senate seat in 1998, and who died of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Williams' funeral, which is slated to include tributes from Gov. Rendell and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, among others, will be this morning at West Philadelphia's Sharon Baptist Church.

There was no shortage of political firepower last night, either, as guests also included U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Reps. Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah, who said the hubbub over Williams' unprecedented City Hall bid was what got him interested in politics as a teen.

Fattah said that, ironically, he was skipping a meeting last night between House members and President Obama to come back to Philadelphia to honor Williams.

"That's because I wouldn't even know where the U.S. Congress was if it wasn't for Hardy Williams," said the congressman, who waxed nostalgically for the days when Williams would have a neighborhood campaign office inside someone's rowhouse.

The African-American pols who paid tribute all agreed their own successes traced back to Williams and his long-shot campaign for mayor in a Democratic primary won by future Mayor Frank Rizzo. The coalition that arose from Williams' campaign elected W. Wilson Goode as Philadelphia's first African-American mayor 12 years later.