[2][3] Her father Oliver Golden was an African-American agronomist from the Southern United States, and her mother Bertha (née Bialek) was a Polish Jew from New York.

[4] After being unable to return to their native United States alongside her mother due to anti-Black racism and World War II,[5] Golden remained in the Uzbek SSR, where she played tennis for the national team.

[6] Following the encouragement of actor Wayland Rudd [ru], she went to Moscow State University, where she majored in African-American history and became their first Black student.

[10] In 1987, amidst Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika reforms, Golden visited the United States to find relatives at the invitation of Center for Citizen Initiatives founder Sharon Tennison.

[3][5] She also was a United Nations representative for such NGOs as the Center for Citizen Initiatives and founded the Golden Foundation of Russian-African Culture.