Golden, Renny

Born February 1, 1937. Poetess, professor, educator, and social justice activitst. Activist, poet, and academic, Corinne (Renny) Golden was born in 1937 and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Golden became a Dominican nun at the age of nineteen. She earned a B.A. degree from Sienna Heights College in 1960, a Masters of Education from Wayne State University in 1968, and a Doctorate of Ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary in 1976. The civil rights movement and her involvement in helping the poor dramatically changed her life, and she left the convent before taking her final vows. In 1972, after moving to Chicago, she and another teacher began an adult education program, St. Mary's Adult High School. In 2002, Golden, with the help of Sr. Jean Hughes, began another adult high school called St. Leonard's Adult High School, serving former prisoners. In 2005, she started a bilingual adult education school, the Dorothy Stang Popular Education Adult High School. Her first trip to El Salvador in 1985, resulted in her book The Hour of the Poor, the Hour of Women published in 1991. She became active in the underground railroad that helped El Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees flee to sanctuary churches and synagogues in the United States and subsequently co-authored Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad, published in 1986. Golden taught at Northeastern Illinois University for 27 years and for several years at Harvard Divinity School, Walpole Prison, Columbia College, and most recently was appointed Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico.