Community members shared laughter, tears and applause as they gathered Saturday to honor the life of veteran Detroit lawyer Bill Goodman at Wayne State University.
Goodman died Nov. 17, 2023, at age 83 and a funeral was held at Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield on Nov. 20, 2023.
Attendees filled the Community Arts Auditorium at Wayne State on Saturday afternoon, listening as speakers of all ages and backgrounds discussed the profound impact Goodman left on their lives and careers.
Goodman’s decadeslong legal career included human rights and civil liberties advocacy, taking on cases like stop-and-frisk policies, Guantanamo Bay detentions, the Flint water crisis, Palestinian rights, police brutality, prisoners’ rights, Vietnam War victims and more.
He co-founded Goodman and Hurwitz, P.C., a Detroit-based civil rights firm, co-founded the Sugar Law Center for Economics and Social Justice in Detroit, taught at Wayne State’s law school for over 15 years, and served as the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.
Goodman also served as special counsel to the Detroit City Council as former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick faced a text message scandal in 2008. More recently, Goodman represented Detroit Will Breathe in a lawsuit against the city of Detroit, ending in a $1 million settlement.
“He dedicated his life to helping the most vulnerable victims of state violence and carried himself with such levity and life,” said Nicholas Hurwitz-Goodman, Goodman’s son. “He was the funniest person I know, always ready with a joke or anecdote about his life.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat, recalled Goodman’s dedication as a mentor throughout her political career.
“He truly always used his expertise, his love, to help teach my residents how to evoke their rights when police were using many of my neighbors’ immigration status as a weapon,” Tlaib said.
South African lawyer and activist Albie Sachs, a longtime friend of Goodman, shared a message via video.
“He had a generosity and a happiness of spirit, a geniality that could make up with people,” Sachs said. “He enjoyed life, he enjoyed being, he enjoyed doing things, he enjoyed companionship.”
Organizers played a video clip of Goodman dressed as Santa Claus attempting to distribute copies of the U.S. Constitution outside the White House one Christmas, with attendees laughing throughout, a touch of Goodman’s humor mixed with legal advocacy.
Lawyer Allison Kriger worked as a law clerk for Goodman at Goodman and Hurwitz, P.C., and appreciated the impact of his core principles as a lawyer, she said.
“No matter how many times humanity seemed to let him down by deliberately and methodically making laws that oppressed people, primarily Black and brown people, he never gave up, he never stopped fighting to change those laws and dismantle that power structure,” Kriger said.
Goodman dedicated his life to pursuing a more just world for all, said Julie Hurwitz, his longtime law partner and the mother of three of his children.
“He was at his core one of the most decent, generous and giving people I have ever known and always fighting for justice and for a society in which human rights take priority over the rights of property and capital,” Hurwitz said.
Goodman is survived by six children; four grandchildren; a brother; the mothers of his children, Jane Goodman and Hurwitz, and Susan Gzesh, his companion.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Memorial honors life of veteran lawyer, human rights advocate
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
