Susan Goering
{{Short description|American civil rights lawyer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
Susan K. Goering (born 1952) is an American civil rights lawyer, known for her litigation against segregation and other forms of institutional racism, in particular during her time at the ACLU of Maryland.
Early life and education
Susan Goering was born in 1952 into a Mennonite family in North Newton, Kansas.{{Cite web|date=2014|title=Susan K. Goering|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/educ/exhibits/womenshall/html/goering.html|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Maryland Women's Hall of Fame}}{{Cite web|last=Miyagawa|first=Sharon|date=2014|title=Susan K. Goering: Biography|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/016800/016888/html/16888bio.html|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Archives of Maryland}}{{Cite web|date=2016-09-09|title=SMCHA banquet hosts Goering|url=https://www.mcphersonsentinel.com/news/20160909/smcha-banquet-hosts-goering|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518204027/https://www.mcphersonsentinel.com/news/20160909/smcha-banquet-hosts-goering|archive-date=2021-05-18|access-date=2021-05-18|website=McPherson Sentinel|language=en}} Her family's pacifist beliefs would influence her life trajectory, and she was also inspired by watching a broadcast of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech during the March on Washington.{{Cite web|title=Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Nomination Narrative: Susan K. Goering|url=https://aclu-md.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/sg_nomination_narrative_0.pdf|website=ACLU of Maryland}}{{Cite news|date=1998-02-01|title=Rights Minded|work=The Baltimore Sun}}{{Cite news|last=Surkiewicz|first=Joe|date=2013-12-09|title=Susan Goering—25 years at the ACLU of Maryland|work=The Daily Record}} Her father, Milton Goering, was a football coach, and the family lived in Ohio for a period before settling in Wichita.{{Cite web|date=2009-10-15|title=Milton M. Goering|url=http://www.hutchnews.com/Obituaries/Goering2009-10-15T20-20-05|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411031515/http://www.hutchnews.com/Obituaries/Goering2009-10-15T20-20-05|archive-date=2013-04-11|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-18|website=HutchNews}} She studied political science and English at the University of Kansas, then graduated from law school there as well.{{Cite news|last=Brown|first=Kathy|date=1973-07-06|title='There's my women's lib mailperson!'|work=The Hutchinson News}}
Legal career
From early in her career, Goering focused on civil rights law, working in particular to fight discrimination against African Americans. After law school, from 1982 to 1985, she worked on a school segregation case in Missouri, Missouri v. Jenkins, that would become the final Brown v. Board of Education-style case in the United States.{{Cite book|last=Lanahan|first=Lawrence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6_tmDwAAQBAJ|title=The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore's Racial Divide|date=2019-05-21|publisher=The New Press|isbn=978-1-62097-345-5|language=en}}
In 1986, she was hired as legal director of the ACLU of Maryland.{{Cite web|date=January 2018|title=Susan K. Goering|url=https://mdwomensheritagecenter.org/2018/01/susan-k-goering/|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Maryland Women's Heritage Center|language=en-US}} After 10 years at the civil liberties organization, she became the local executive director.{{Cite news|last=Gregg|first=Tracey L.|date=1987-04-06|title=ACLU is seeking volunteer lawyers|work=The Evening Sun}} The Baltimore Sun described her tenure there as defined by her "aggressive leadership," under which the organization "gained a reputation for defeating racism in some of its most subtle forms."
Goering's legal work in Maryland included successfully fighting for the closure of outdated jails with poor conditions in the state's Eastern Shore; spearheading Bradford v. Board of Education, a case that drove the state to readjust how it funded schools; and winning the landmark segregated housing lawsuit Thompson v. HUD. She has repeatedly brought litigation against the Maryland State Police, including on "Driving While Black" and spying on peaceful protesters. In addition to her influential work on racial justice, Goering also litigated for marriage equality on behalf of same-sex couples.
She retired from the ACLU in 2018, after over three decades with the organization.{{Cite news|last=Roy|first=Anamika|date=2018-02-11|title=Susan Goering to retire after 32 years with ACLU of Maryland|language=en-US|work=Maryland Daily Record|url=https://thedailyrecord.com/2018/02/11/susan-goering-aclu-retirement/|access-date=2021-05-18}}{{Cite web|last=Kurtz|first=Josh|date=2018-05-29|title=Maryland ACLU Gets New Leader|url=https://www.marylandmatters.org/2018/05/29/maryland-aclu-gets-new-leader/|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Maryland Matters|language=en-US}}
Recognition
In 2006, Goering was given the Robert M. Bell Award for Leadership in Public Service by the University of Baltimore. She previously received the Legal Excellence Award for the Advancement of Unpopular Causes from the Maryland Bar Foundation in 1994 and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service's Keeper of the Dream Award in 2000. In 2014, she was named to the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.
References
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{{Maryland Women's Hall of Fame}}
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Category:University of Kansas School of Law alumni
Category:University of Kansas alumni
Category:American civil rights lawyers
Category:American women lawyers