Catching Up with City Councilman Calvin Goode

More from this show

A Phoenix city councilman for 22 years before retiring in 1994, Calvin Goode is the farthest thing from �retired.� HORIZON catches up with this energetic 81-year old, who shows us the projects with which he’s involved.

ed Simons
>>> He was a Phoenix city councilman for over 20 years. Tonight we continue our series about life after politics by catching up with Calvin Goode. He was only the second African-American to serve on the Phoenix City Council. He fought to get the city to recognize a holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And he paved the way for a city ordinance prohibiting workplace discrimination based on race and sexual orientation. As producer David Majure and photographer Richard Torruellas show us, Calvin Goode may be retired, but he isn't slowing down.

David Majure
>> After 22 years as a Phoenix city councilman, Calvin Goode retired from the council in 1994. But he didn't retire completely.

Calvin Goode
>> Well, I feel better if I'm doing something.

Calvin Goode
>> Is it coming along all right?

David Majure
>> He spends a typical day doing quite a lot.

Calvin Goode
>> We will be down to see you. Today I have visitors from channel eight and after that we --

David Majure
>> That happens every day, right?

Calvin Goode
>> Yes, interview every morning.

David Majure
>> While Goode may not always have a camera crew following him around, he certainly is a busy man and he doesn't plan to take it easy.

Calvin Goode
>> I have seen some of my friends here who have sat down and say they're going to take it easy, and then they die.

David Majure
>> With a lot of living to do, Goode continues to fight for what is important to him. Like early childhood education.

Calvin Goode
>> I think the most important investment we can make is in our young people. Starting with this age level. Sometimes they don't have the opportunities at home to work with a lot -- low income parents. They don't always have the skills and so forth to develop the child the way they should develop.

Calvin Goode
>> Bye.

David Majure
>> Goode is vice president of the board for the Booker T. Washington Child Development Center, a head start program that he has been involved with since 1967. The center is building two new classrooms.

Calvin Goode
>> Looks like it is coming along real good.

Worker
>> Thank you, sir.



David Majure
>> Goode is supervising the project and raising money to complete it. Phoenix has been Calvin Goode's home since the mid 1940s.

Calvin Goode
>> It has changed quite a bit, yes.

David Majure
>> As vice president of his neighborhood association, Goode is concerned about the city's rapid growth and how it is affecting his community.

Calvin Goode
>> I call it under siege by developers who want to come in and build high rises and push us out. I feel we have been here a long time, and I don't plan to move anywhere else, but the pressure is on.

David Majure
>> With an eye to the future, Goode keeps a foot in the past. He serves on the board of the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center.

Worker
>> The door is going to be hung and swung on Tuesday --

David Majure
>> As chairman of the facilities committee, Goode is working on renovations to the building.

Calvin Goode
>> Because I have a lot of investment in the building and I think that our young people need to know the contributions that African-Americans have made to this country.

David Majure
>> The museum is devoted to African-American history.

Calvin Goode
>> Do you see this picture here? Did you notice it? One of the high school students did that, and my wife and I bought it and put it there. It tells a story if you understand what happened --

David Majure
>> This building was once a place of segregation, Carver High School, built for the city's African-American students.

Calvin Goode
>> This is a statue of George Washington Carver, the school was named after him. When he died in '43, the citizens decided to change the name.

David Majure
>> Goode graduated from Carver High in 1945 and later worked for the school.

Calvin Goode
>> For five years until they closed it in '54.




David Majure
>> In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that schools segregated by race were unconstitutional. It ended segregated schools, but Goode said it didn't stop the problem.

Calvin Goode
>> In terms of segregation, we probably have more de facto segregation now than we had back before the Supreme Court of 1954, and looking at the different school districts here in Phoenix, for instance, there is still inequities, and I think there perhaps always is going to be inequities.

David Majure
>> That is why Goode continues to support affirmative action and equality for everyone.

Calvin Goode
>> Well, you know, I say as an American citizen, I'm entitled to all of the rights and privileges, and the opportunities, and I don't like to think that I have to fight for them.

David Majure
>> But Goode continues fighting for equal opportunities, affordable housing, and early childhood education. Those same things he has fought for his entire career, only now with a greater sense of urgency.

Calvin Goode
>> Well, I guess I'm a little less patient. I'm 81 years old now. And I'd like to see some of these things get done, you know, in a more timely manner.

Calvin Goode:Former Phoenix city councilman

Illustration of columns of a capitol building with text reading: Arizona PBS AZ Votes 2024
April 2

Arizona PBS to present candidate debates as part of ‘AZ Votes 2024’

A photo journalist walking a destroyed city
airs April 2

Frontline: 20 Days in Mariupol

A woman working on a project in an art studio
airs March 29

Violet Protest

The
aired March 25

Pulitzer on the Road: Small Town Shakedown

Subscribe to Arizona PBS Newsletters

STAY in touch
with azpbs.org!

Subscribe to Arizona PBS Newsletters: