Anne Braden
Anne Braden (July 28,1924 - March 6,2006) was an American civil rights activist and newspaper journalist. She worked for newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky, Anniston, Alabama and Birmingham, Alabama. She also worked for the civil rights movement.
Early activism
In 1948, she married Carl Braden. He was a journalist too. They were interested in Henry Wallace' s campaign to be President of the United States. Not long after Wallace lost, they left mainstream journalism. After World War II, the labor movement grew less aggressive. It began to break apart into smaller groups. At the same time, civil rights causes heated up.
In the 1940s, some hospitals were racially segregated. Black people were not treated in the same area as white people. In 1950, Anne Braden led a hospital racial integration drive in Kentucky. She wanted to show that such racial segregation was a bad idea. In 1951 she led a group of southern white women organized by the Civil Rights Congress to Mississippi. During that march, she was arrested. They were protesting against the execution of Willie McGee, an African American. He had been convicted of the rape of a white woman, Willette Hawkins.
The Wade case
Anne Braden is probably best known for something that happened in 1954. The Wade family asked the Bradens for help. Andrew Wade was an African American who wanted to buy a house in white suburban Louisville, Kentucky. Because of Jim Crow housing practices, the Wades had been unsuccessful for months to buy a home on their own. The Bradens agreed to buy the house and resell it to the Wades. On May 15,1954, Andrew Wade and his wife Charlotte spent their first night in their new home. When white neighbors discovered that black people had moved in, they burned a cross in front of the house. They shot out windows. A few days later, a stone was thrown through a window. The milkman would not deliver milk. Someone cancelled their newspaper subscription. White friends began staying in the house to guard against further violence. After a few weeks, the incidents quieted down. However, just after midnight on June 27,1954 a bomb went off in the house. It was under the room the Wade' s two-year-old daughter slept in. Nobody was home at the time.
The Bradens and five other whites were charged with sedition. They were accused of trying to start a race war. They were also accused of blowing up the house themselves to try to overthrow the government of Kentucky. This happened during the time of McCarthyism. Anyone could be accused of being a communist and many were. Carl Braden was said to be a communist troublemaker. He spent eight months in prison. The Supreme Court ruled a year later in a Pennsylvania case. It said sedition was a federal crime, not a state crime. Carl Braden' s state conviction was cancelled. The charges were dropped against the other defendants. The Wades moved back to Louisville.
Life
Anne Braden was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She died there at age 81.
References
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
American civil rights activists
1924 births
2006 deaths