29 Facts About Golden Frinks

Golden Asro Frinks was an American civil rights activist and a Southern Christian Leadership Conference field secretary who represented the New Bern, North Carolina SCLC chapter.

Golden Frinks is best known as a principal civil rights organizer in North Carolina during the 1960s.

Golden Asro Frinks was born to Mark and Kizzie Frinks on August 15,1920, in the small town of Wampee, South Carolina; he was the tenth of eleven children in the Frinks family.

Golden Frinks's name came from a profound "golden text" that Frinks' mother witnessed at Sunday services just before Frinks was born that afternoon.

At the age of nine, Golden Frinks moved to Tabor City, North Carolina.

Not long after moving to Tabor City, Golden Frinks' father died and Golden Frinks' mother was left to take care of the large household.

Golden Frinks taught her children not to conform to society's status quo, but strive for the change they wanted.

At the age of sixteen, Golden Frinks left Tabor City and enlisted in the United States Navy in Norfolk, Virginia.

In Washington DC Golden Frinks had his first encounter with civil rights activity.

In January, 1953, while working at Waylie's Drug Store, Golden Frinks saw his employer refuse to serve lunch to a group of black teens and was deeply bothered by the injustice he witnessed.

Golden Frinks soon left DC and returned to Edenton; he became actively involved with his family in the Chowan County Branch of the NAACP and served as secretary of the chapter.

On March 4,1960, Golden Frinks resigned from his position in the local NAACP and proceeded to organize his own protest with children from the NAACP Youth Council using the experience he learned from his first protest in Washington, DC The protest on the theater was a success and its victory helped spread Golden Frinks' name as a North Carolina civil rights activist.

The hesitancy of the local NAACP chapter to challenge segregation motivated Golden Frinks to take his own direct actions.

Golden Frinks led the town's young activists to participate in his desegregation effort and made them the main participants of the movement.

In 1962, Golden Frinks was first arrested during the Edenton Movement for a demonstration at a theater when Golden Frinks refused to stop what police considered "unlawful picketing".

Golden Frinks brought his pastor and SCLC representative, LaGarde, and longtime friend, Norman Brinkley, to vouch for his character.

However, in the following months Golden Frinks traveled to other states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky to scout out the locations and make sure it was fit for King's arrival.

On July 1,1963, Golden Frinks led a protest to desegregate Watts Theater in the center of town, resulting in the first arrests of the movement.

The information that was passed on to the Klan was a great risk that Golden Frinks' constantly faced and could only occur with the assistance of blacks, hinting that Golden Frinks did not have the full support of the entire black community during the Williamston demonstrations.

The primary reason why some blacks did not support Golden Frinks' demonstrations was their economic dependency on the white community and their fear of being cut off financially.

Golden Frinks recognized this financial problem early on in his campaign and used it to his advantage by leading boycotts on white businesses in Williamston and directed the black consumers' business elsewhere.

When Little's first lawyer withdrew from her case, Golden Frinks publicly guaranteed Little's safety and set up a defense team using his personal civil rights attorneys to ensure Little a speedy trial.

Golden Frinks set up the Joanne Little Legal Defense Fund to raise money for her case.

Golden Frinks played an integral part throughout the murder trial, ensuring Little a safe trial and rallying up supporters for her defense.

Golden Frinks went around taking donations and they were taking that money and pocketing it.

Some blacks in Wilmington were concerned that Golden Frinks was causing a split in the community between those who supported his wild activism and others who disagreed with his protesting methods.

The accusations of Golden Frinks mishandling money added to the controversy since money issues were present several times in Golden Frinks' past which caused some people to doubt his motives.

In 1977, Golden Frinks officially ended his employment with the SCLC but continued to support the SCLC's activities.

Golden Asro Frinks died on July 19,2004, in Edenton, North Carolina, at the age of 84; Frinks' lifelong dedication to civil rights activism and desegregation inspired countless others to stand up in pursuit of social justice and equality.