ANNE BRADEN (1924-2006) was a journalist, organizer, educator and one of the earliest and most dedicated white allies of the Civil Rights Movement.
Braden was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 28, 1924, but grew up in the more segregated town of Anniston, Alabama with her middle-class family. She was bothered by racial segregation at an early age but didn’t question it until her college years at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia.
After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter in Birmingham, covering the courthouse. The lack of harmony between the Bible and the racist practices of her community troubled her, motivating her to leave the deep South. In 1947, Braden moved to Louisville to work for the Louisville Times. She found that although blacks there could vote and sit where they wished on buses, race relations were otherwise very similar to what she had experienced farther south. The following year, she married newspaperman Carl Braden.
In 1948, the Bradens worked on Henry Wallace‘s presidential campaign. Following his defeat, they left journalism to devote themselves fully to the Progressive Party. Anne also fought civil rights abuses. In 1951, she was arrested for leading a delegation of Southern white women organized by the Civil Rights Congress to protest the execution of Willie McGhee, a black man convicted of allegedly raping a white woman.
In 1954, the Bradens agreed to purchase a home for Andrew and Charlotte Wade, a black couple who wanted to buy a house in a suburban neighborhood but had been unsuccessful because of Jim Crow housing practices. On May 15 (just two days before Brown v. Board of Education), the Wades spent their first night in their new home in the Louisville suburb of Shively, but once their white neighbors discovered that blacks had moved in, they burned a cross in front of the house, shot the windows and condemned the Bradens for buying it for them. Six weeks later, the Wades’ home was dynamited while they were out one evening. The bombers were never sought nor brought to trial, although Vernon Brown, an associate of both the Wades and the Bradens was indicted. In October of that year, the Bradens and five other whites were charged with sedition after the ordeal was said to stem from the Communist Party support in the Wades’ housing quest.
Carl was the perceived ringleader and was convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Anne and the others awaited their sentencing while Carl served eight months but was out on a $40,000 bond when the Supreme Court invalidated state sedition laws. All charges were dropped and the Wades moved back to Louisville.
The Bradens then took jobs as field organizers for the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), a small, New Orleans-based civil rights organization whose mission was to solicit white Southern support for the Civil Rights Movement. Before Southern civil rights violations made national news, the Bradens developed their own media through the SCEF’s monthly newspaper, The Southern Patriot, and through numerous pamphlets and press releases publicizing major civil rights campaigns.
In 1958, Anne wrote The Wall Between, a memoir of their sedition case. It was one of the few books of its time to unpack the psychology of white Southern racism from within and was praised by human rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt, and became a runner-up for the National Book Award, one of the highest literary prizes in the United States. Although their radical politics marginalized them among many of their own generation, the Bradens were reclaimed by young student activists of the 1960s, and in his ‘‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail,’’ King singled out Anne as one of the white Southerners who understood and was committed to the Civil Rights Movement.
After Carl’s death in 1975, Anne remained among the nation’s most outspoken white anti-racist activists. She instigated the formation of a new regional multiracial organization, the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice (SOC), which initiated battles against environmental racism. She became an instrumental voice in the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition of the 1980s and in the two Jesse Jackson presidential campaigns, as well as organizing across racial divides in the new environmental, women’s and anti-nuclear movements that sprang up in that decade.
In 1990, Braden received the American Civil Liberties Union’s first Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty for her contributions to civil liberties. Her activism focused more on Louisville in her later years, where she reamined a leader in anti-racist drives and taught social justice history classes at local universities. Braden died on March 6, 2006. On April 4, of the following year, the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research opened at the University of Louisville, focused on social justice globally but concentrating on the Southern U.S. and particularly the Louisville area. Over her nearly six decades of activism, Braden’s life touched almost every modern U.S. social movement, and her message to them all was the centrality of racism and the responsibility of whites to combat it.
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Concrete Loop features ‘CL History Spotlights’ each week honoring individuals who have played pivotal roles in history. submissions are welcome.
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I love to here stories like this. Historical figures such as her, aren’t often noted enough in Black or “regular” history. Thank’s CL because of posts like this, I’m able to update my Amazon book wish list with meaningful works that are long forgotten.
Great story! Go on, girl! Thank you for all you’ve done for The Cause.
Alright Anne… Werk! I just learned a little something…
untwistedbeats.blogspot.com
very interesting… thanks cl!
Great story. I’m going to look for her book, “The Wall Between”.
I already knew whites had taken a stance against racism. It’s just wonderful putting a face to it. Never heard of her, but I want to say thank you Anne for your committment and dedication to my equality.
May your soul rest in peace and may you be watching what your hard work has helped produced, this country’s first Black President, Barack Hussein Obama.
WOW!! her story would make a serious movie! Thanks CL!
Great Post!
Though I am against whites uniting with Blacks in our struggles, because I believe Black people must first find unity amongst themselves before bringing in other races, I still applaud any white person who assisted Black people in which ever way they could– from the whites who offered safe houses to Harriet Tubman to Ms Braden. I applaud them because though they might not have liked the way Black people were being treated, they did not have to intervene and help and basically putting their lives at risk. I mean there were times when a white person who was considered a “N*gger Lover” was dealt with harsher than Black people themselves.
I grew up in Louisville Kentucky. Mrs. Braden wrote an article about my family and I had know clue of everything that she had done. Thank you. Tears came to my eyes reading this because I have met this woman on several occassions.
This was a nice thing to see, thank you CL.
This was a very nice article, I might look for the book also.
I’m firmly convinced that if the Kingdom of Heaven did not allow white people in, black people would not want to get in either, lol. Black people should do research on these so-called white integrationists before they praise them. They’re nothing more than baby-sitters. Our people are in an infantile, dead state of mind and the job of the “good white folks” was/is to make sure that blacks keep the pacifier in their proverbial mouths. Most of them were agents, some for America, some for Israel, and some for the U.S.S.R. The point was to bring blacks into the fold of the European way of life to set up what is happening now, which is the forced integration of all races through the destruction of any indigenous belief system, culturalism, or racial identity. The Bradens did blow up that house that they arranged for that black family to get as propaganda and a publicity stunt. As usual, blacks were the pawns. No disrespect, but if one views the economic power that black people wield now in comparison to 150 years ago, it is virtually the same, which means that none of these movements have done anything other than give black people an even greater inferiority complex.
Very good post and keep with the good work cl.
Dukesman2000 you just sound ignorant.
THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PEACE KNOWING THAT U HAVE TRULY MADE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR LIVES!!! LOOK AROUND WE HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT YALL =)!!!
Judah you have no idea, who or what Anne Braden stood for. – She was a great lady, who I knew personally and your statements about her are so far off base they aren’t even worth debating. – Thanks CL for the history lesson.
I agree with #1 she is a huge part of black history even though she’s not black. What an amazing story. I am going to seek her book to read it. I am very interested. Thanks CL. She definitely deserves to be recognized for her efforts and for standing up for what she knew was right!!!!!!
@ Judah
Good to “see” ya again..
The first thing I thought when I read about this woman was, why is she on this site? I am sure there are thousands of non-blacks that helped with the struggle, but, it would be nice if CL could only focus on the BLACKS that have made an impact. After all it is black history month.
@ Judah
Glad to see you back on CL. I was going thru Judah withdrawals (smile).
The first thing I thought when I read about this woman was, why is she on this site? I am sure there are thousands of non-blacks that helped with the struggle, but, it would be nice if CL could only focus on the BLACKS that have made an impact. Especially since it is black history month.
@Petergrand
Then tell me what she stood for, since you believe that you know, because you believe that you knew her? I don’t like to debate on “public figures” because it’s like debating against people that believe that a shadow has depth because it has form. Question, if her motivation was what I said it was, do you think that she would tell you, lol? If she did, would you believe her? The black community has all-time high statistics in divorce, disease rates, abortion, and incarceration, but negroes would have you believe that integration has helped our people. That’s why it is appropriately likened unto a dream, and a sensible person can never expect the same race of people that enslaved them, to assist them in any way with them attaining their freedom. That is common sense to people with common sense.
The test of the authenticity of a “movement” is actual change. There has been no change in the black community because there was never meant to be. The intent was to shift things, not change things, and the current condition of black people is proof positive of this. It’s what is known as the Hegelian Dialectic, pressure from above and pressure from below. That is why the so-called “bombing” of the black people’s house coincided with the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. The point was to sensationalize the “plight” (caused by whites) of blacks in America to engender “pity” around the world, and in America, as a pretext for a change that was already mapped out before the plan was implemented. The rulers of America at that time were just as racist and hateful as the southern whites. Why would they be part and parcel to any change of status for black people unless it was part of a greater initiative. You think Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Congress, or the Supreme Court gave a damn about black people, lol?
@Sigh
What up sis.
Nice.. u learn something new everyday. These posts are really good. Keep it up CL
Louisville stand up!
I respect both sides of the perspective of white folks in the black liberation struggle, Ms. Braden was one of kind. I met her when I was a teenage and she definitely made a difference in the shape of local and national issues of racism and oppression. Interested/critical parties should for real look into the lady before casting her into the sea of white skepticism and distrust. Although the histories of the struggles are different, in the same way that men can/should be a part of ending sexism and str8 people can/should help end homophobia, *some* white people have also been sincerely interested in and committed to ending racism because it it the right and just thing to do.
god bless this web site for exposing the truth and history about the lost tribes of us black americans and who helped us along the way. point being we couldn’t of done this alone. let some of the black folks tell it. since there’s been a black president elected we’s free……. and all i can say is look at the way them republicans like mitch mcconell of ky , judd gregg the cold feet senator from out east who their secret “order” got to. and he vacated that sec. post like a scared woman, and the way them republicans looked as the cameras scaned the house chamber as the president gave his speech to the members of congress. it was a facial expression was the look of the kkk, it was a look of hate. even though president obama rises above the fray , TRUTH IS the invisible empire, as i type this blog memberships are skyrocketing. these good ol boy hate groups are circling the wagons and black folks just lolly gagg like its just another day. roooooffff rooooof or meooooooww and all that with no plan. al sharpton is only 1 man. and it seems like its him or the black panther party, or the nation of islam ARE ALWAYS THE FIRST ONES AT THE FIRE. they are the first responders to some of the blatant acts of injustice that breaks out though out this nation. i wonder sometimes why is it? like mary wells sang; them 3 always ‘beat you to the punch’. you other black adv groups your always slow out the shute. i bet you them republicans all 47 million ain’t laying back complacent . their just building a bigger and better trojan horse. while we black folks call for a end to this and a end to that. because of what you think. ”””””’ your living under the illusion of equality . not if the republicans have their way. if you don’t stay vigilant . that look of hate by them congressmen and the fakeness of some democrats in the audience that night of the speech spoke volumes.
It’s nice to see a woman from my city get proper recognition. She and her husband are well known for all they did for the city of Louisville, where the majority of blacks in Kentucky reside. Rest in Peace Mrs. Braden because you did God’s work here on Earth. You and the Rev. Louis Coleman will always be remembered for the strides you made in the Civil Rights movement.
And no CL can’t just focus on blacks. How dare we not recognize those of other ethnicities who risked they lives for what they believed in so that you could live in America today free of slavery. Think about that before you so quickly dismiss those who helped our people, especially if you have done nothing to help your own. Don’t just talk it, walk it and maybe you’ll learn something in the process.
The most celebrated leader of the Civil Rights movement, Martin King hoped that one day people would just by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. Ms. Braden was obviously someone of great character to have stood up and fought against inequality so it’s sad to see people say she shouldn’t be on here simply because of the color of her skin. It’s hypocritical because you wouldn’t want someone to look at you and say that although it’s an unfortunate reality.
Justice has no skin color…God Bless this woman! Thank You CL.
Why did you not think it was important to mention the fact that Karl and Anne Braden were long time members of the communist party (CPUSA)? Anne was even a registered Kentucky elector when Angela Davis ran for Vice President on the CPUSA ticket.
This is a great story, indeed.
@Thomas McAdam
None of these simple-minded integrationist blacks like to admit that all their heroes were communist drones, because that would expose the true motivations of the “movement”, which was to destroy the infrastructure of America and use blacks as pawns. Black people really think that there are white people that want to “free” them. It’s sad.
I’m from Louisville and I knew about her and her story growing up. It’s good to see it being recognized outside of the city.