From Convicted Felon To Fearless Civil Rights Advocate, The Story of Harry Golden

By Frank Stasio,

Anita Rao

Published June 2, 2015 at 11:51 AM EDT

Image of Golden on the campaign trail for Robert F. Kennedy's successful run for US Senate. The inscription reads: "To Harry...and afterwards I put on my coat, did what you told me, and won the election. My thanks, Bob Kennedy"

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Harry Golden is an acclaimed Jewish-American humorist and writer best known for founding 鈥淭he Carolina Israelite.鈥� Here he is on the campaign trail for Robert F. Kennedy's successful run for US Senate. ";s:

Harry Golden Papers, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Harry Golden at his desk in December 1957.

Tom Nebbia / LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

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Harry Golden in 1957. Golden wrote about race, religion, and civil rights in his monthly newspaper, the Carolina Israelite.

Tom Nebbia / LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

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Kimberly Hartnett, the author of "Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care About Jews, The South, And Civil Rights."

Alan S. Weiner

Harry Golden is no longer a household name in North Carolina, but at one point he was likely the most famous North Carolinian in the country. Golden was a Jewish-American writer who grew up in New York City鈥檚 Lower East Side in the early 1900s.

He spent his early years as a small-time stock broker but wound up in federal prison for investment fraud. He turned his life around after moving to the South, and landed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1940. He founded his own monthly newspaper, , and became a household name for his writings on race, religion and civil rights.

Host Frank Stasio talks to author about writing and publishing the first comprehensive biography of Harry Golden, 鈥溾€� (UNC Press/2015).

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's 瓜神app Director.

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Anita Rao

Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.

See stories by Anita Rao