Literary agent Frances Goldin died May 16, 2020. A left-wing activist and longtime agent, Goldin, who had been struggling with health issues for years, was 95.
Goldin launched her eponymous firm in 1977. The goal of the Frances Goldin Literary Agency, said Sam Stoloff, was to "champion left-wing authors." Stoloff, who is now president and a senior agent at the firm, said that Goldin, in addition to her career in publishing, was "known for her activism in various movements, especially the fight against real estate development and gentrification in New York."
Her clients were a mix of notable bestselling authors and literary heavyweights, including Dorothy Allison, Barbara Kingsolver, Martin Duberman, Adrienne Rich, Mumia Abu Jamal, and Mike Wallace. The agency changed ownership in 2009, but continues today under the same name.
Born in 1924 to working-class Russian-Ukrainian Jewish parents, Goldin grew up in Springfield Gardens, Queens, and Harlem, the Village Sun reported. In the 1940s, she moved to the East Village and became a tenant organizer. She married Morris Goldin, a staffer of the socialist New York State American Labor Party. Like him, she joined the Communist Party.
In 1951, when she was 27, she ran for the state Senate as the American Labor Party candidate.
She and her husband eventually separated, then divorced, though reportedly stayed on good terms.
She lived on E. 11th St., a few blocks north of the Cooper Square Urban Renewal Area.
Goldin's enduring passion was left-wing politics, and Stoloff said that one of the highlights of her career was the 2014 publication of Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA, which featured contributions from a number of her clients and friends.
Stoloff, in an announcement about Goldin's passing, said that she was particularly passionate about establishing affordable housing in her home city of New York. To that end, she was a founder of the Cooper Square Committee, which still exists today and was created, Stoloff said, "to fight predatory redevelopment on [Goldin's] beloved Lower East Side.
Goldin, Stoloff added, became a well-known fixture among civil rights groups in her later years and was, he said, "known for her dependable presence at the Gay Pride Parade in New York, with her famous sign 'I Adore My Lesbian Daughters—Keep Them Safe.'" Stoloff said that, in 2017, Goldin was asked to ride on the lead float in the parade. She also was among the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
"Since the beginning of the parade, I’ve been going and waving my sign," Goldin told BuzzFeed in 2016. "It sort of hit a nerve with people, particularly those whose parents rejected them. The response to the sign is always so great — it urges me to keep going."
The sign itself was painted by a city planner, a dear friend of Goldin's, because she believed you just couldn't be at the parade without a sign. The message, "I adore my lesbian daughters," instantly caught the attention of other parade attendees.
he original sign didn't include, "Keep them safe." That was added in 1993 when Goldin attended the historical LGBT march on Washington, DC. She insisted that a protest sign must have "a demand," so the second sentence was added. The back of the sign reads, "A proud parent of lesbians."
Among the hordes of Occupy Wall Street protesters on November 11, 2011, Frances Goldin stood out: the 87-year-old literary agent and activist had a tuft of purple hair and carried a sign that read, “I'm 87 and mad as hell."
She might not look like the typical Zuccotti Park demonstrator, but she believed in the mission to close the income equality gap and to promote social justice. For decades, Goldin demonstrated and stood for the rights of the disenfranchised.
"I've been arrested nine times for civil disobedience; I want to be arrested 12 times," Goldin told NBC New York. "And I was sure I'd be arrested today, but the cops were determined because of the bad publicity for them, to not arrest an 87-year-old woman."
She recalled her conversation with an officer Thursday morning as hundreds of protesters marched toward Wall Street.
"I said, 'What if I socked you in the eye?' and he said, 'I'd give you a free shot,'" Goldin said. "'Well, what if I kneed you in the groin?' and he said, 'No, you're not going to get arrested!'"
The first time Goldin was arrested was earlier at Cooper Square. She and others were protesting Robert Moses' urban renewal plan. When they were able to stop the plan, she became inspired to remain an activist throughout her life.
From protesting Vietnam to pursuing Mumia Abu Jamal's release, Goldin saw it all. But there was something about the Occupy Wall Street movement that touched her.
"Their spirit, their dedication, their love," she said. "It's like food, it gives you energy."

Information from Obituary: Frances Goldin (Rachel Deahl ) posted on Publishers Weekly.com on May 18, 2020;
“Frances Goldin: 87-Year-Old Protester and Proud of It”, (Pei-Sze Cheng) posted by NBC NY on November 17, 2011;
“This 92-Year-Old Has Been Holding The Same Sign At Pride For Over 30 Years”
(Sarah Karlan), posted on BuzzFeed on September 12, 2016; “Frances Goldin, legendary housing activist, literary agent, dies at 95”(Lincoln Anderson), The Village Sun, May 17, 2020;