Los Angeles, CA – George W. Goodman, writer, musician and pioneering journalist, died in Los Angeles on April 7 at the age of 87. Goodman wrote and reported for a host of newspapers and magazines from the Los Angeles Sentinel to Look, The Atlantic and The New York Times on everything from the Watts riots of 1965 to profiles of Pete Seeger, BB King, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Sonny Rollins.
Goodman comes from a family of journalists. His father, George Goodman, Sr., was Executive Secretary of the Urban League in Boston and Washington, DC, started a radio program at New York’s WLIB in the 1950s, and was on the editorial board of The Hartford Times. His mother, Blanche Juanita Washington, was a journalist and probation officer in Los Angeles, where her brother, Leon Washington, owned the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper.
Goodman grew up in Kansas City, MO, a hub for black musicians, jazz clubs and emerging sounds that helped shape his view of the world. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he earned a Master’s in Journalism from UCLA and was among the first wave of African American journalists to be hired by mainstream news outlets in the Sixties.
Having started at his uncle’s newspaper, Goodman went on to work for the Countywide News Service, the Associated Press, Crisis Magazine, Ebony, and Look magazine, where he was known for editing the ground-breaking January 7, 1969, Special Issue “The Blacks and the Whites.” He joined The New York Times in 1971, where he reported variously on politics, real estate, theater and music, particularly jazz, a lifelong passion. He studied saxophone and flute with Steve Lacy, Bill Green and John Handy, and played with such legendary jazz musicians as Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon and Jimmy Spaulding. After leaving the Times Goodman continued to play and to write about jazz for several magazines. He taught journalism at Santa Monica Community College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Goodman is survived by his wife, Lydia Long; five children: Tyra Goodman, Lauren Goodman, David Goodman, Leland Goodman and Hayden Goodman; his brother Jon Goodman; and 4 grandchildren. A memorial service will be planned for a later date.
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