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Harry Golden: Bestselling author, raconteur, and advocate for civil rights with his irreverent newspaper, The Carolina Israelite

Blogger before blogs existed

Long before bloggers existed, Golden pioneered much of what characterizes contemporary media. A smart and accessible writer, he was a master of the short form, resisting easy labeling. Golden was a humorist, a Jewish writer, a civil rights agitator, and a storyteller. He was, above all, a troublemaker -- a personality who both participated in and reported on the civil rights story.

Golden had a remarkable memory for political events and history, but he was not above adjusting facts to improve a punchline or make a point. Much of his writing feels dated; some of his thoughts read as patronizing or sexist today. Yet there is value in reading him in the context of his times and understanding what content was received as humorous, shocking or brave at the time. Because he was so widely read, Golden’s work is a valuable window through which to see popular culture of his era.

Power of the press

Golden's first job as a young boy was hawking newspapers on the streets of the Lower East Side. He was riveted by the big stories of the era, which he followed for years, such as the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911, the lynching of Leo Frank in Georgia 1915, and the cases of the “Scottsboro Boys” in Alabama, beginning in 1931. Golden never lost his conviction that good journalism and brave editorializing made people rally for the underdog and brought about needed change. While Golden was not a traditional daily-news journalist, he was befriended and admired by many who were leaders in the field, including James Jackson Kilpatrick, Edward R. Murrow, Ralph McGill and Harry Ashmore.

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