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Golden opportunityEvelyn Davis Golden (JD 76)BY IAN FISHERFrom where Evelyn DavisGolden (JD 76) has been,her career path comes as nosurprise.Golden is now an attorney withthe U.S. Department of Housing andUrban Development in Atlanta andhas worked as a public servant foralmost all of her career since lawschool.Golden’s office is responsible forenforcing regulation of multifamilyhousing developments insured bythe Federal Housing Administration(FHA) and making sure owners keeptheir property in decent, safe andsanitary condition for the tenants.“Before going to New York I hadsomewhat of a background and lifeexperiences that indicated that civilrights would be something I’d beinterested in,” Golden said. Goldenwatched her parents and neighborscarpool to go to the polling place tovote for John F. Kennedy. “Therewas security in going to the polltogether.”Golden was born in 1951 insegregated Moultrie, Ga., and livedthere until moving to New York in1963. Since graduating from the UFCollege of Law in 1976, she hasheld numerous government jobs,including assistant attorney generalfor Florida, assistant public defenderfor Orange County and OrangeCounty judge.Although Golden had donewell in the segregated schools inMoultrie, many in her new homeof New York did not expect hereducation to be up to par.“When I first came, they said,‘Oh these A’s can’t be representativeof what her educational level is,’ ”Golden said. “They tested me andfound out, in fact, that they were.They placed me in gifted classes,called special progress classes upthere… Things changed for me afterthat.”Golden attributed her successthroughout school to both herparents and her teachers back inMoultrie. She was taught by anall-black faculty in Moultrie thatpushed her to work her hardest.“They didn’t accept thatbecause you were black and poorthat you couldn’t learn — thatyou came from poverty, so youweren’t worth the effort,” Goldensaid. “Everybody was challenged;everybody was expected to succeed,and the majority did.”When Golden transferred to UFLaw after her first year at BrooklynLaw School, she had a new obstacleto face — gender discrimination.Although she was raised inthe South during segregation, thegender discrimination was bad toher because she was older and moreconscious of it.“When you’re young, you kindof know that you’re being slighted,but you’re not sure,” Golden said.“Of course, some things were veryobvious. Every summer we wentto the vacation reading club at thepublic library. There was a Negrosection and there was a white sectionwhen I was in elementary [school].Every year, I got my little certificatefor completing all of the vacationreading for the summer, and I wasalways very proud of that.”At UF, a couple of professorswere openly sexist to her, but thatwas relatively common in the early1970s, she said.“When I went to the Universityof Florida, it was kind of scarybecause I had never had some ofthe challenges that I faced there,”Golden said. “I went to school at atime when we’d (women) walk intothe library, people would shuffletheir feet because I was a woman.”Golden, who was married,got pregnant in law school andcontinued through law schoolpregnant. An employment lawprofessor constantly questionedher in class about pregnancydiscrimination laws, and an evidence“I went to school at a time whenwe’d [women] walk into thelibrary, people would shuffle theirfeet because I was a woman.”professor did not give her a researchposition because she was pregnant.“He said that I should be homeknitting blue booties, not knittingbooties, but blue booties for thebaby,” Golden said (Golden has twogrown daughters). “So I had someinteresting experiences there, butoverall, the faculty was very fairand I enjoyed property classes, soI ended up doing property. Eventhough the professor was horrible tome, I enjoyed employment law.”Although Golden did not noticeany obvious racial discriminationtoward her at UF, it has come up inher career.“When I was a judge, it wasweird, there were people that didn’tlike me because I was black and Iwas a judge, and they didn’t mindshowing me,” Golden said. “HereI have the power to put you injail, and you’re disrespecting me.It was a total disconnect. I foundthat interesting. But in most of mycareer, I can’t say that, even thoughI felt there were some judges that Ifelt were discriminatory, I can’t say Isuffered tremendously from that.”Golden began working forHUD in 2000 as attorney advisorin the Departmental EnforcementCenter (DEC) before a stint in theFair Housing Division, where sheassisted in clearing up a backlog ofpending fair housing complaints. InJuly, she moved back to the DEC. ■FALL 2008 57