Darcella GoodmanDarcella Goodman, who was installed in February as president of the Topeka NAACP chapter, may be the first black Jew to be named to a position like this. It’s a two-year, voluntary term.She has been a member of Topeka’s Temple Beth Sholom for more than 30 years. She said while she wasn’t born Jewish, her father, Ishmael Massey, was called “the young rabbi” by his friends because his father, who was a minister, taught Bible school on the Jewish Sabbath.“It was a Hebrew custom in their family going way back,” Goodman said. “So (my father) knew it was in his family background and when he got to be an older man he decided Judaism was what was right for him.”Like his father, Massey was a minister, but later became a Hebrew scholar at Gratz College, a private Jewish college in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, where he earned a doctoral degree. He then went on to practice as a rabbi, officiating over small shuls in various cities, Goodman said.“I don’t remember all his research, but his family had some Native American ancestry, and they practiced some Jewish customs,” she said.Goodman grew up in both Topeka and California. When her parents divorced, she moved back to California to live with her father and his new wife. She was 17 at the time and since they practiced Judaism, she did too. She said she remembers having a Jewish meal that seemed very familiar to her yet she had never experienced it before.“That was the feeling I had — ‘I know this somehow,’ ” she said. “It just came naturally to me. I thought it was right because in the Bible they have customs — the seventh day being the Sabbath, that sort of thing, so I just believed it.”In San Bernardino, California, Goodman and her family belonged to the Conservative Temple Emanu El where she took evening classes in Judaism. She said it was there that she learned to speak conversational Hebrew with a woman from Israel.This humble 65-year-old woman said she sees nothing unusual about being a Jewish president of the local NAACP chapter.“I hadn’t really given it a whole lot of thought,” she said. “I’m not even sure most of these folks here in Topeka know that I’m of the Jewish faith. They probably think I’m Baptist, even though I’ve told them.”There are around 100 members of the Topeka NAACP chapter, Goodman said. As president, she wants to help young black boys and girls seize the opportunities available to them.“I’d like to see us do positive things with the youth, helping them with jobs and helping to inspire them, let them know they’re not alone; they have support, we care about their welfare and want to see them have opportunities,” she said. “We do a lot of that, helping with the youth.“Also, collaborating with other like-minded groups that want to be a positive force in the community; it would be a blessing to everybody.”Goodman said she sees a lot of positive relations between the races in Topeka, people who are civic minded and care about the whole community.“You’ve got your bad apples every place,” she said. “But I see a lot of people helping people, people caring about other people no matter what color we are.”Years ago Temple Beth Sholom was vandalized and she said it wasn’t just the Jewish congregation helping erase the graffiti off the building, but others joined too because they cared about the synagogue.Rabbi Debbie Stiel said Goodman is very active at Beth Sholom.“She has been on the Temple board and is a member of our choir and participates regularly in our synagogue activities,” Rabbi Stiel said.Rabbi Stiel believes Goodman is someone who can bring people together and find common ground. She added that since she grew up in Topeka, she knows a lot of people who are involved in various leadership positions and believes she will be a bridge builder.“Topeka unfortunately, like a lot of cities, remains more segregated than it should. The NAACP has an important role to play in raising awareness about the need for things like affordable housing, good job opportunities for African Americans and good mentors for African American youth. I hope there will be ways for our Jewish community to show support for the work of the NAACP locally. This work fits well with our desire to help better our city,” Rabbi Stiel said.Goodman attended Monroe Elementary School, which is now the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. The Topeka NAACP holds its meetings there.Monroe was one of the “separate but equal” schools that triggered the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in public schools. Goodman was at Monroe in the early 1960s. She said she’s proud to be part of that history.“It’s still kind of awesome to me. Back then all the teachers were black and all the students were black except maybe about six white kids,” she said. “Of course it was open to all comers. I never saw any of the white kids getting persecuted because of race; the black kids just accepted them.”For the last 30 years, Goodman has been owner and a managing member of G-Pro Janitorial and Training LLC in Topeka. She and her late husband started the company in 1989. The focus of the company is to teach entrepreneurial skills in the janitorial field — an online school, which is open to anyone.“My husband and I worked on putting a school together for eight years, deciding what we wanted to do, how we wanted to do it. It’s just taken time,” she said.Goodman’s company also offers training for people who want to be a professional concierge.“I’m kind of having fun with that, getting this altogether,” she said.
