My name is Councilwoman Dorothy L. Goosby. I was born in a small town in Florida called Apalachicola and I am 60-plus years old.
Q. What did you do that led to your being called an activist, if activist is the term you would like to use?
Goosby: I became an activist because I was born and raised in the segregated South. In the South I was not made to feel like a human being. If I walked on the sidewalk a white person would say to me, 'Blackbird, get off the sidewalk.'
And of course down there, it was very, very warm. The sun was hot. The sand was hot and I did not like that. I did not like the way we were treated. I did not like the fact that we did not have good books, that we were not taught subjects because I was told I was too dumb to learn them. I've never been dumb.
I wanted to have what everyone else had, so I became an activist because I realized that in order to change things I had to be involved. So that's why I became an activist…We were not treated like people. We were treated like animals and I did not like that.
And I became involved in the Goosby vs. Town of Hempstead case for the same reason. The fact was in the district where I live, African Americans comprise more than 12 percent of the population along with Latinos. We were not allowed to vote for and have anyone who represented us within our area.
We had bad streets in our area. We had poor schools. We had bad parks. All that we paid for as taxpayers, we were not a part of it. So in order to become a part of it, we filed the Goosby vs. Town of Hempstead lawsuit in 1988, Aug. 8, 1988 to change from at-large voting to councilmanic districts so that we could play a role in our own destiny.
Q. Was there any fear in getting involved, and were there moments of doubt?
Goosby: There were moments sometimes when I doubted. But it was more important for me to continue with the case. I had two positions that I was terminated from [BECAUSE OF]this case. In addition, I was coerced by many to try to get off of the case-I was offered money, I was offered various positions.
And not only that, I was called the N-word. I was called other. My kids were threatened. I was called many things, my home and my husband. I went ahead with it because my family agreed. And we knew that in order to accomplish anything in this life, we had to continue. So I did, as well as some others.
There were others who did not continue because of the pressure that was put on them. But it was more important to me to be able to get the rights that we had, that all people should have, to continue with this. So I was able to do it because of the support that I had from my family, as well as many friends, and certainly from my attorney, Fred K. Brewington.
Q. What was your proudest moment, greatest accomplishment and how would you like to be remembered?
Goosby: I would like to be remembered as one who has worked to change the lives of many, to make it better for all of us so that we become a part of and all-encompassed into the society rather than being outcasts. And that is my main purpose here, to make sure that we have a better community for all, all participate as one.
Q. Ms. Goosby, tell us when you came North?
Goosby: I came North in 1959 after completing a B.S. degree at Florida A&M University. I happened to go to school because of the fact that two scholarships were offered to 500 black students throughout the state of Florida. I was fortunate enough to have won one of those scholarships from the Tallahassee Democrat. And that's how I started out in school. My parents were poor, so to speak.
We had plenty of food. We had shelter. But there wasn't money for me to go to college, but because of that scholarship and because my father worked for the railroad at that time, they gave me a small scholarship. I worked my way through college, so that's how I was able to do that.
But even in college, I had \[difficulty in\]college because I've always been dark and I've always been heavy. And even in black colleges at that time, if you were dark and you did not have the straight, curly hair you were ostracized… it was a caste-type of situation in black schools. That, too, was a problem for me, but I fought it.
I remember walking to the capital of Florida… because of the fact that… the jobs that I had were jobs that were in the kitchen. I could not get a job in the library, things of that sort. So I went to protest that. In addition there was a black student who was raped by a white student. This young lady was raped… a black girl being raped by a white guy and absolutely nothing was done about it.
Q. When did your activism begin?
Goosby: It began in Florida. Because if you lived in segregated communities… all the schools were segregated. All the books that we got were second-hand books that had first been used by white students that were torn. I was not taught math because I was told I was too dumb to learn it.
I was not taught chemistry because we were \[told we were\]too dumb to learn that as well. In addition, we did not have a chemistry lab. All of the amenities that the white schools had we did not have. I did not like that because I loved math and I loved to read and I wanted to have the same as the others.
I've always been like that. As a matter of fact, my mom wanted to make sure I came up here \[north\]because she thought someone would kill me, you know, for the fact that I just wouldn't take what other people-I did not use my fist. I believed in using words, so that's what I did. I'd heard about Dr. King and that was one of my people that I really looked up to. I remember the boycott of the buses in Alabama during Rosa Parks' time. I heard of those things and it sort of prepared me for what I knew I needed to do.
I didn't know I was going to be a councilwoman because I'd never even heard of a councilwoman. I didn't know anyone who had been one. And it didn't occur to me that I would ever be in this position. I didn't know it but I just know throughout my life, what has happened to me has always been by steps and I believe in God. Only because of Him am I sitting here now, and I think this is what He intended for me to do.
Q. Tell us about your arrival in Nassau County and what you thought of the political structure at that time?
Goosby: When I arrived in Nassau County \[in 1962. She'd first arrived in New York in 1959\], at that time I was much younger. I had two beautiful young daughters. So my main purpose at that time was to make sure that they got a very good education.
That's how I became involved in the school system, with the PTA and ended up with Girl Scouts and finally on the \[school\]board of Hempstead. And I didn't like that because… at that time the Republican Party controlled the school board in Hempstead. Because I was a Democrat, they did not want me to serve.
Eventually, I lost. And then in the village of Hempstead, we were not treated as we should've been treated. Our streets were not swept as other parts of the neighborhood. And as you can see now there's still a difference in the way we live. I didn't like it.
So I got involved in that as well. I wrote letters of protest to the mayor as well as to members of the Assembly. And finally I got involved with the Democratic Party because someone asked me to come to a meeting. My parents were both Democrats… I would not become a Republican. They \[others in Hempstead\] asked me to, because I am not a person who would have someone tell them what to do.
I don't follow unless I, within myself, I know that it's right. At that time you had to do what they told you to do and it's not me. I've never done it and I'm not about to start it now.
So I got involved in the Democratic Party because I thought that was the best way for all of us to be included, and at that time it was good. I'm still a Democrat even though some of my Democrats have done some things I have not been very happy with when I ran for supervisor for the Town of Hempstead.
I'm the first African American who's ever run for supervisor. Instead of them helping me one person brought charges against me, my husband, my daughter, charging us with voter fraud. We won that case because it was not true. They did not want me to run against Kate Murray at that time because of the way I am, and the personality and the popularity that I have I probably would've won. I didn't have the support that I should have gotten from my own party.
So, that's the way it is with me. But you know who came to help me? You'll never guess. The person who came to help me was Hillary \[Clinton\]. She came to a little headquarters that I had in Hempstead. She helped me. She endorsed me…
Q. Let's talk about the 1988 suit in which you're the lead plaintiff challenging the voting system in Hempstead Town that disenfranchised black people.
Goosby: Yes, and Latinos.
Q. What was it like trying to make an inroads into the political system, as a black person? You are the first black woman to serve on the Hempstead Town Board.
Goosby: That's correct. It was not easy. I had many who worked against me at that time. As I said, I was coerced by some. They called my home. They called me the N-word. They called me other. They also tried to influence the schools, as far as my children were concerned. My husband as well. It was not an easy task. It was hard because there was so much pressure put on us.
I am a state certified registered nutritionist, dietician. And, at that time, I served as an administrator in a nursing home in Queens. Next thing I knew that was snatched out from under me because the nursing home needed some help from a state official, so I was pushed out of that job. I had been there for 10 years.
The same thing happens once the case broke. So there was a lot of pressure put on the nursing home, because nursing homes, their funds come from the state of New York… But it didn't stop me. What I did was go back to school. I had a master's, so now I have a master's plus 30 \[credits\], which I got from Hofstra University, going back to teach.
I'm a chemistry teacher as well. A person who was told you're too dumb to learn chemistry, I teach chemistry. My daughter's a math teacher, and my other daughter is in finance. So we all had that particular background, but we were told we were too dumb to learn it. It was not offered to us when I was growing up.
Q. So you were fired from jobs because of political influence?
Goosby: Exactly.
Q. What year was that?
Goosby: One was when I first started out. One was in 1999, the last one I had… It was around, had to be in the '90s.
Q. Your ultimate goal was what? For yourself to be in political office?
Goosby: No. Had no idea. I was not interested in myself. I just wanted this to be changed and so that we could really realize our fair share for what we all are paying for. We pay very high taxes in the area that I live in. As a matter of fact when time came for me to run for this position my answer was 'Absolutely not. No.' I was in a convention, a Democratic Convention, and they asked me to run. I said 'No. I am not running.'
And all of a sudden, Tom DiNapoli was the Democratic chair at that time, he stopped the convention and he says, 'Listen, we have to an African American on this ticket. We've got to have it diversified. And he asked me to run and I said, 'No.' So I'm sitting in the audience then all of a sudden everybody got up, I'm sitting in a chair and they came and they stood around me. All the people who live in Lakeview and Hempstead and they said you've got to run and I said, 'No.'
So they got my husband and my husband comes and said ok maybe we'll do it. And that's how it happened. I had no idea. Because, first of all, you have to remember, never in the history of this town, since 1905, had a Democrat won anything in the Town of Hempstead. No one ever believed that I would win. It was a real big upset when I won. And the first time, you have to remember, I won at-large. No one could believe that. Totally unbelievable.
Then when I won, I brought two other Democrats in with me. First time since 1905 that this happened. This was in 1999… the first time I won. And then when the final ruling came -- this case went as high as the Supreme Court of the United States of America. And they refused to hear the certiorari.
Once the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the certiorari, then the town had to act and go ahead with the districts.
Their first reaction was they would do two districts. The court said no… never two districts. My lawyers had already drawn up six councilmanic districts, according to the census… You have to remember that the only African Americans that we had in East Meadow, that lived in East Meadow, were in the County Jail… We didn't have any African Americans in Levittown and so forth.
So when you do at-large voting, which was done at that time, it meant that we were not represented because we were 12.5 percent of the population during the time we filed this case. 12.5 so you disperse 12.5 into the entire town, which is over 700,000 people, you're completely lost. Which meant that we had no one. If we voted for someone it couldn't happen. And before we filed this case… there were people what had tried to run for the council seats and they could not make it. Not only that, it was discriminatory.
They never had a black on the town board until Mr. \[Joseph\]Mondello appointed his tennis partner. And that only happened because before that time the ministers had gotten together and they had marched in protest in Nassau County… But he was not the person of choice that we wanted. \[Curtis E.\]Fisher became the first black member of the Hempstead Town Board in 1993 when Mondello, then Hempstead Presiding Supervisor as well as Republican \[county chairman, appointed Fisher to fill a vacancy\]. We had people that we wanted to serve on the board but they were not elected… Lance Clark was one of those people that we had wanted to serve on the council but they would not select him...
Q. What is it like to now be on the town council. The two other Democrats lost re-election in 2000. Do you remain the only Democrat?
Goosby: Yes.
Q. And what is it like? you're the only Democrat on the Republican-controlled town board, the only black woman, what is it like to try to govern, to try to bring services to your community in this environment?
Goosby: Well, when I first walked in here \[Hempstead Town Hall\] it was not easy. Many people did not want to accept the fact that I was here because my first term was a one-year term. And they just knew, because of the change in the government I had to run again. Some people said to me, 'What are you going to do when you are no longer on the Town Board. Who are you going to become?' I said 'I'm going to be myself.'
But when it came for me to run the second time, I won with 86 percent of the vote. So winning 86 percent of the vote made a big difference… Mine ended up being another one-year term…
I have no problem now. I can get a photographer when I need a photographer. At first I could not. They would screen everything that happened. When it came to getting services, I had a problem with that, at first. Then they realized I'm here. So when I ran again and I won with over 90 percent of the vote for the four-year term, then everything changed.
The employees respect me. They were praying for me all over this place… Then they decided, well, she's here. She speaks up. We have to work with her. So they do.
There're still some little quirks that go on. But I've been able to get all the streets done in Roosevelt. I've been able to get all the parks redone and cleaned up. I've been able to get liners into the swimming pools and so forth.
I've been able to help get many people who have worked here for as long as 13 years working part-time seasonal fulltime \[positions\]so that they now have benefits… And an internship I started here for the first time. We have had more than 40 students come through here as interns. Many of them have gone on to become great people. They've finished college and so forth…
I started community meetings…More people are involved in government now than ever before… We have so much to do here now that it's almost impossible to do it because we have an open door and the residents come in. It has not only benefited my councilmanic district, but all councilmanic districts. All of the residents now an feel ownership to this town government…So there has been a large change since I've been here, compared to what it was like when I first came.
This is my eighth year… I'm on a four-year term now. It's up in '09, I run again. It's been a whirlwind. And for the first time, I serve on the Rules and Resolutions Committee of the Association of Towns for the State of New York… First time in the history that you have an African American serving on the executive committee of the Association of Towns for the State of New York. The association of towns is all of the towns within New York State… I am everywhere, as far as the residents are concerned…
Q. Finally, are you optimistic about blacks' inclusion in the political process here in Nassau County or Long Island in general?
Goosby: I am optimistic. First of all, because of the Goosby vs. Town of Hempstead case when it was filed, we now have 19 legislative seats in Nassau County, whereas before it was 5 supervisors. Out of those 19 we have 2 black legislators, which are Roger Corbin and Kevan Abrahams. In addition to the councilmanic districts that we have here in the Town of Hempstead, following suit was Brookhaven.
They now have councilmanic districts…We have councilmanic districts now in North Hempstead as well... Instead of one black woman who is a councilwoman, there are now three of us \[Island-wide\]. I take great pride in that. We opened the government and people see how it's working. Actually, I believe in government of the people, for the people and by the people.
And finally, we have the opportunity to participate in government and realize some of the benefits of the open government system. I'm very proud of that. It was well worth it. And I'm still the same. I do what I feel is best for the people. I try to make sure that I follow all of the laws and make very good decisions. Not always what people like, but I think what's best for everybody. You have to think about the whole, not just one individual.