Why I Joined: I may have been a Socialist before I knew what it took to be a Socialist
I think I may have been a Socialist even before I knew what it takes to be a Socialist.
When I had just graduated from Wayne, I tried to organize my fellow Medical Technology students to form a union. They laughed at me for even raising the issue. But I learned that you accomplish good things when you are part of a group of activists. I got involved with CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) around 1962. We had less than 100 members locally but they were activists. We picketed Kroger’s to get them to hire Black over-the-road drivers. Our persistence produced a meeting with a member of the Kroger Company from Cincinnati who agreed to our demands.
As part of my work in CORE, I helped organize Westside Mothers (around 1966), a welfare rights group. CORE wrote letters to our 3 utility companies demanding that they allow welfare Moms to get service without charging them a security deposit just because they were poor. All three denied us but we picketed and kept up the noise until all three gave in. In fact, volunteering with Westside Mothers through the years has been a real pleasure.
My husband and I knew Michael Harrington, and supported his idea for creating a a socialist movement, so when he formed the precursor of DSA (Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee — DSOC), I definitely wanted to join. When you have a Socialist proposition and real people backing you up, you can accomplish great things. I have enjoyed being part of a movement and see no reason to stop now.
— SELMA GOODE
