As an innovative educational leader who has helped over one-thousand students access a high-quality, affordable college education, Anthony Phillips will advocate for increased educational opportunities for all Philadelphians. As a young teen, Anthony founded Youth Action knowing that hard work and education were the passageways to our community’s opportunities. His loving, single mother worked two jobs to ensure that he and his sister had the best chance at success in life. She sacrificed to ensure her two children had every possible educational and extracurricular opportunity.
His family moved from North Philly to the 9th council district when he was eight. Like numerous people who sought better housing and schools, his family settled into the community but never settled for anything less than exceptional. Anthony will always demand the best of the City and its government in meeting the common needs of all residents from every part of the district.
After a world-class education that included an Ivy League university, Anthony “moved back home” to pay back the community that raised him. His hard-working mother and sharecropper grandmother from Marion, South Carolina, taught him that education and preparation were important parts of a positive life. Hard work, integrity, open communication, faith in God, innovation, respect for elders, encouragement for children and young people, and friendly customer service are hallmarks of his life and work. He will lead in city council and serve the 9th District with a commitment to these core values. His staff will also reflect a friendly, service-minded approach to meeting this community’s needs.
His mother worked two jobs, and his grandmother labored as a maid so that Anthony could attend Bates College, Morehouse College, Yale University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Anthony is in the final phase of earning a Ph.D. in African American Studies. He will bring this knowledge and combine it with practical work experience to create opportunities for students and a stronger, higher quality of life for families in the 9th District!
Like many neighbors, Anthony wants safer streets, a more visible police presence, constructive community-police collaboration, better schools, stronger and cleaner business corridors, and a more responsive city government. Phillips believes that the district’s schools must provide mental health and emotional support for students who COVID and violence have impacted. As he has done with Youth Action, Anthony will develop and implement programs at schools, churches, mosques, hospitals, and community centers that provide opportunities to strengthen our community.
Faith is a critical part of Anthony’s life. An active member of Salem Baptist Church, Anthony is the bus driver for Salem’s senior citizens and intends to continue in this role while serving on the City Council. He believes elected officials must continue to serve and remain in touch with the regular, rank, and file people they represent. Raised at Triumph Baptist Church, he was a youth leader, sang in the choir, and attended church every week, even when he didn’t want to as a child! Faith in God, service to all people, and imitating the loving example of Jesus Christ are essential to his leadership model.