SEPTEMBER 19 • 2019 | 5
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Jewfro
Selma Goode Represents
V
isit Selma Goode in her
one-story Redford home
and it becomes clear
quickly that at 96 years old, she
is purpose-driven, patient and
proud of Westside Mothers, the
organization she
founded in 1966.
Visit Selma
Goode on the
third floor of the
Walter P
. Reuther
Library — in
archives of onion
skin, facsimile,
carbon copies and meeting
agendas annotated in cursive
— and it becomes clear quickly
that she is a powerhouse.
Of course, Detroit Jews
For Justice is not honoring
Selma Goode because she is
diminutive and doting. They
are bestowing the inaugural
Myra Wolfgang Award on her
because she is a world-class
community organizer, an ally
and advocate who harnessed the
political power of a population
at its most vulnerable, marginal
and aspirational: poor moms.
Selma grew up in Richmond,
Mich., a town of 1,400 people
where her father retained his
Orthodox observance, dealing
scrap metal and making his
own wine (“I thought it was
good”) during Prohibition. He
died before she graduated from
high school, after which the
family moved to Detroit.
Selma’
s job as a mother
of four overlapped with and
informed her career as an
activist. In person, she marks
milestones based on the age of
her youngest daughter, Julia. In
archives, you date her efforts
by the letterhead of those
whose attention and respect
she commanded — Gov. Jim
Blanchard, guber-
natorial candidate
Sander Levin, City
Council Presidents
Maryann Mahaffey
and Gil Hill, State
Rep. Kwame M.
Kilpatrick.
In 1963, the
year before Julia
was born, Selma
and her husband,
Bill, approached
local Jewish insti-
tutions about
welcoming Martin
Luther King Jr. to Detroit. Bill
worked for the Jewish Labor
Committee and Selma was
involved with the Congress
of Racial Equality (CORE).
The Anti-Defamation League
objected and ultimately
refused for fear that the Walk
to Freedom down Woodward
Avenue would lead to rioting.
Undeterred, Selma and
other CORE members worked
with Rev. C.L. Franklin to
dispel rumors that people were
planning to bring guns to the
March, which ultimately was
both the picture of peaceful
assembly and the first iteration
of Dr. King’
s I Have A Dream
speech.
The civil rights movement
motivated Selma, in her
capacity as research sirector
for CORE, to organize “ADC
Moms,” mothers receiving Aid
for Dependent Children. She
made three critical mistakes
whose lessons informed the
next 50 years of her work.
1. Know your audience.
Selma could not understand
why the turnout was so low
at the initial parlor meetings
until someone explained to her
that they were not comfortable
in other people’
s houses and,
furthermore, wanted a space to
meet outside the home.
Once the meetings moved,
the CORE office attendance
grew rapidly and led to the cre-
ation, constitution and mem-
bership structure of Westside
Mothers, a welfare rights orga-
nization.
2. Get out of their way. At an
early meeting, Selma presented
a problem she was confident
would gain consensus and
momentum: the absence of a
park for children in the area.
The women in attendance
acknowledged her politely
before coalescing around a
salient issue of their own.
Ben Falik
continued on page 10
fami
mily mov d
ed to
Selma Goode
and Ben Falik
publisher’
s notebook
A Message to
Our Readers
The Sept. 12 edition of the
Jewish News started a new
chapter in our 77 years of
service to the
Detroit Jewish
community. It
is now an all-
glossy weekly
magazine, with
crisp, colorful,
reproduction and
more content in
a convenient size.
We appreciate your initial
positive feedback. Despite
planning the format switch for
months with our new printer,
a human error resulted in the
tardy delivery of the magazines
to the post office. And a post
office automated system for
sorting and distributing the
Jewish News to satellite postal
facilities for timely delivery to
you … well, the automated
system underperformed.
The result is that most of
you didn’
t receive your Jewish
News last Thursday. Many did
on Friday, and most — but not
all — by Saturday. We appre-
ciate your patience and under-
standing as our printer and the
post office better synchronize
their weekly handoff an
d dis-
tribution.
We trust you’
ll enjoy the
new format. It represents our
ongoing commitment to those
— like you — who want their
Jewish News in print. Thank
you again for your readership
and encouragement.
Sincerely,
Arthur Horwitz
Publisher & Executive Editor
Arthur Horwitz