Renny Golden papers

Biographical note

Activist, poet, and academic Corinne (Renny) Golden was born in 1937 and raised in Chicago, Il. Golden entered the Dominican order of nuns when she was nineteen. She earned Bachelors of Arts 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 with a specialization in Liberation Theology and Social Science 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. “I had to leave the convent to find God among the poor,” she said. In 1972, after moving to Chicago, she and another teacher began the adult education program, St. Mary's Adult High School. Adult education would continue to be a passion for Golden, and in 2002 Golden, with the help of Sister Jean Hughes, began another adult high school called St. Leonard's Adult High School, which served former prisoners. In 2005 she also started a bi-lingual adult education school, The Dorothy Stang Popular Education Adult High School.