Lily Golden at her home, circa 1950, Moscow

Photograph of Lily Golden sitting in a window seat at her home in Moscow. The daughter of an African-American father who moved to the U.S.S.R., Golden was born in Tashkent in 1934 and spent her early years there, becoming a tennis champion of Soviet Central Asia. She later moved to Moscow to study African history and music. Lily met Charlotta Bass, publisher of the California Eagle, when Bass visited Moscow in 1950. By that time, Golden's father, John, had died. But Lily told Bass she would never forget his stories about the persecution of black people in the United States.