When he was flying in helicopters over the dense, dark jungle of Vietnam for the U.S. Army, Charles Goston learned he cannot wait for truth.
Throughout his entire life — as a kid growing up in a segregated Gainesville, to fighting in the Vietnam War, to helping break barriers of entry for black men and women into the communications world — he became familiar with the time and effort it takes to protect what is right, he said.
“What I’ve always had to do is stand up for those who are afraid to stand up for themselves,” he said.
And now, Goston said he is ready to stand up for the people of District 1.
Goston said one of the most important issues to him is lowering Gainesville Regional Utilities bills that he said ballooned when the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center biomass contract began.
He also wants to bring the natural gas resources to District 1, where he was born and raised.
Growing up in the East Gainesville kept racism away from his immediate life. But Gainesville was a sundown town, he said, meaning if you were not white, you’d have to be out of town by the time the sun set.
“If you had to walk somewhere, you could guarantee that you were put into a situation where dogs were sicced on you,” he said. “You’d hear the N-word so often that you’d have to go back and ask your mom, ‘Is that a part of my name you didn’t tell me?’”
He saw a plethora of talented people fail to succeed simply because they were black.
“I made up my mind when I was real young that I was not going to do that,” he said. “I think I started reading probably when I was about maybe 5 or 6.”
His grandmother taught reading, which is how she met his grandfather. His grandfather was a janitor at UF and would bring National Geographic books to Goston to devour as a child.
“You can go on a trip and never leave your surroundings,” Goston said. “But what it was doing was enlarging my intellect and at the same time enlarging my vocabulary, giving me the opportunity to want more than the people around me who didn’t read.”
Goston took that desire and climbed the ranks in the Lincoln High School marching band, eventually becoming one of the Marching 100 at Florida A & M University.
He was unable to finish his education at FAMU because he was drafted. But when he returned, he graduated from UF’s College of Journalism and Communications.
“Some people you meet who have high quality education can’t communicate,” said his friend, Ermon Owens.”They’re condescending and talk down to you. But Charles? Charles is like your average guy on the street, and that’s how it should be.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 3/13/2015]
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Charles Goston
