Harry Lewis Golden (May 6, 1902 – October 2, 1981) was an American writer and newspaper publisher.
Golden was bornHerschel Goldhirsch (orGoldenhurst)[1] in theshtetlMikulintsy,Austria-Hungary.[2] His mother Nuchama (nee Klein)was Romanian and his father Leib was Austrian.[3]
In 1904 Leib Goldhirsch, a former Hebrew teacher, emigrated toWinnipeg, Manitoba, only to move the family to New York City the next year and "became an editor of theJewish Daily Forward."[4]
For a time, Harry worked as a newspaper seller on theLower East Side and could remember shouting out headlines about theLeo Frank case about which he later wrote a book.[5] As a teenager, he became interested inGeorgism, and later spoke on its behalf.[1]
He became astockbroker but lost his job in the 1929stock market crash. Convicted of mailfraud because he had held onto funds entrusted and thereby caused a loss to investors, Golden served four[6][7] years in a Federal prison atAtlanta, Georgia[4] and, decades later[8] PresidentRichard M. Nixon gave Golden a full presidentialpardon for the mail fraud conviction.[4]
In 1941, he moved toCharlotte, where, as a reporter for theCharlotte Labor Journal andThe Charlotte Observer, he wrote about and spoke out againstracial segregation and theJim Crow laws of the time.[9][10]
From 1942 to 1968, Golden publishedTheCarolina Israelite as a forum, not just for his political views but also observations and reminiscences of his boyhood in New York'sLower East Side. He traveled widely: in 1960 to speak to Jews inWest Germany and again to cover the 1961 trial ofAdolf Eichmann inIsrael forLife. He is referenced in the lyrics toPhil Ochs' song, "Love Me, I'm a Liberal": "You know, I've memorizedLerner and Golden."
Hissatirical "The Vertical Negro Plan,"[11] involved removing the chairs from any to-be-integrated building, since Southern whites did not mind standing with blacks such as at bank tellers' windows,[7] only sitting with them.
Golden reportedly[7] convinced a southern department store manager to put an "Out of Order" sign by the water fountain markedWhite; within three weeks all were drinking from theColored-designated drinking fountain.
Calvin Trillin devised the Harry Golden Rule, which states that "in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses."[12]
Golden's books include three collections of essays from theIsraelite and a biography of his friend, poetCarl Sandburg. One of those collections,Only in America, was the basis for a play byJerome Lawrence andRobert E. Lee. He also maintained a correspondence withBilly Graham.
His Irish Catholic wife, the former Genevieve Gallagher, predeceased him.[7]
Theodore Solotaroff addressed the "Harry Golden phenomenon" in "Harry Golden & the American Audience" inCommentary magazine, March 1961.[2]
Irving Howe comparedPhilip Roth's early novelPortnoy's Complaint toFor 2¢ Plain in a critical review of Roth's novel inCommentary whenComplaint was published in 1969.[13]
Golden was a fascinating man who had some rascally ways. He came to the South from New York City after a misadventure landed him in federal prison for five years convicted of mail fraud and stock manipulation.
See also, "Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care About Jews, the South, and Civil Rights" by Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
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