The author is a labor and community activist who was a striking Detroit Newspapers worker in the mid-1990s.
By Barbara Ingalls
Selma Goode
In the spring of 1996, I was on strike at Detroit Newspapers, the unholy company formed by the Joint Operating Agreement between the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. It was a difficult and disheartening time.
I was working at the Jefferson Avenue office of the Detroit Sunday Journal, the strike newspaper, when we got a call to come down to the Detroit News building on Lafayette Blvd. for a demonstration.
A group called Readers United had gathered; a giant noisy crowd was forming, along with lots of police cars. Then a line of people walked up to the garage doors on the side of the building on Third Street and sat down, singing solidarity songs from the civil rights movement.
Then a blue police bus pulled up and the cops moved in, picking people up off the ground and carrying them into the bus. I watched them approach a woman, maybe 5-feet tall, gently lifting her like a precious jewel, then carrying her to the bus.
She was still singing and chanting, all with a smile on her face. That little woman was Selma Goode. She might have been small in stature but was a giant mighty leader.
Selma died on January 23, 2025 at age 101. She lived in Detroit but then moved to a home in Redford Township where she spent the lion's share of her life.
Selma Goode (far right) protesting for locked out workers.
It’s easy to list achievements of a life that was so long. The difficult part is to describe her quiet leadership and the effect she had on the city of Detroit.
Selma was born in Richmond, Michigan, one of four children. She remembered the terrible poverty of her youth, which fueld her lifelong generosity.
Her daughter Julia remembered that her mother kept at home a tzedakah box, a Jewish box for donations, knowing no matter how little they had there was always someone with less.
Discrimination for reasons of her gender and her religion spurred her to join the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), the Detroit Jewish Labor Committee, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Workers’ Circle/Der Arbiter Ring and MICHUHCAN (Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network). She was the executive director of the Michigan Jewish Labor Committee, was a founding member of the Detroit Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America and the group that probably had the greatest impact on low-income Detroit’s, Westside Mothers, a welfare rights organization.
Another group that Selma was active in was ACOSS, Action Coalition of Strikers and Supporters. Not willing to sit by and let the courts decide the fate of the Detroit Newspaper Strikers, ACOSS organized many many demonstrations in the city, and sent strikers all over the United States to speak at union halls, reminding them that despite the twists and turns of the legal system during the strike, there was a labor dispute that continued in Detroit and our struggle was worth supporting.
I got to know Selma mostly through ACOSS. Her gentle advice kept me grounded, her ideas were always sound. She was always there, in every picket and demonstration we had. After the strike, when Southeastern Michigan Jobs with Justice was formed, she continued to support local union actions at Cintas Uniform, the Detroit Tunnel worker lock-out, WalMart workers, local TV stations labor disputes and many others.
The first big national demonstration against the Gulf War in 2003 was in Washington, D.C. My husband and I drove to D.C., then met up with the Detroit contingent, which came by bus. It was brutally cold that day, and my husband said to Selma, "Do you really want to get on that bus to drive home? Come with us!" She lit up and agreed.
What followed was one of the best 10 hours of my life. We asked Selma about her life, and got to hear about how she helped organized the CORE march in Detroit against terrible pressures, which turned into the first iteration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
She talked about how Westside Mother’s came about when poor people were demonized for collecting meager welfare relief (again, remembering her childhood poverty); how Democratic Socialists of America were the answer to the rightward swing of the Democratic Party, and how much she admired Bernie Sanders. She traveled to Mexico and was able to meet with Subcommandante Marcos (blindfolded on the trip to Chiapas). She also talked about living on a kibbutz, a communal community, in Israel in the 50’s.
Selma was kind and funny, but not to be messed with. Her small stature hid a giant of a woman who would not stand for discrimination or disrespect. Her love for Westside Mothers was the most Selma thing I knew of her, that the plight of poor women and children was one of the great evils of our time.
It’s hard to complain about losing a person at 101 years. Her work will stand as a testament to her incredible character. But I will miss Selma. She was my example of a life fully and well lived. When I get burned out and discouraged, I think of my beautiful friend Selma Goode.
May her memory be a blessing.
