Anne Braden:
The Chronological Life and Works
Adapted from individual research and full Chronology included in
Subversive Southerner by Dr. Catherine Fosl
July 28, 1924: Born Anne Gambrell McCarty (Louisville, KY)
1931-1941: Raised in deeply segregated South (Anniston, AL)
1941-1945: College (Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Virginia)
1945-1948: Anne gets her start in journalism working for Anniston Star, Birmingham News, and Louisville Times.
June 21, 1948: Anne marries fellow activist, Carl Braden (Louisville)
September 15, 1951: Birth of Anne’s eldest child, James McCarty Braden (Louisville)
February 17, 1953: Birth of Anne’s second child, Anita McCarty Braden (Louisville)
May 1954: Carl and Anne Braden purchase house for Wade Family in segregated Louisville
June 1954: Wade House is dynamited
October 1954: Bradens, along with 5 other whites, indicted by grand jury for Sedition
December 1954: Carl Braden convicted of Sedition and sentenced to 15 years in prison
July 1955: Carl gets out of prison on bond to await appeal of his case
1956: Bradens organization of a national protest and Supreme Court ruling against state sedition laws helps Bradens and other indicted whites end their persecution for sedition following Wade Case.
1957: Anne joins SCEF (Southern Conference Educational Fund) and also becomes the editor of Southern Patriot
1958: Anne publishes The Wall Between
1958-1959: Carl employs First Amendment rights by not answering the questions posed to him by House Un-American Activities Committee; convicted for Contempt of Congress and sentenced to one year in prison (he would then appeal the case)
February 7, 1960: Birth of Elizabeth McCarty Braden
1961: Supreme Court upholds Carl’s conviction for Contempt; Carl goes to federal prison (May)
1961: Anne initiates clemency drive (headed by MLK Jr.)
1962: Carl Braden released from prison
1962: Bradens work side by side with Fred Shuttlesworth to organize interracial mass meeting in Birmingham
August 1962: Carl Braden is red-baited in Jackson Daily News
June 1963: Anita Braden diagnosed with heart and lung disease
October 1963: SCEF headquarters raided (New Orleans)
June 9, 1964: Death of Anita Braden (Louisville)
June 1964: Carl and Anne are “uninvited” from training session for Mississippi Freedom Summer
1965-1967: Anne and Carl become executive associate directors of SCEF; introduce Southern Mountain Project and Deep South GROW
January 1966: Move SCEF headquarters to Louisville
September 11, 1967: Anne and Carl (along with 3 others) charged for Sedition following raid in Pikeville, KY
September 14, 1967: Federal court declares Sedition charges unconstitutional
April 4, 1967: MLK Jr. Assassinated – leading to major uprisings
1973-1974: Bradens leave SCEF and organization divides and eventually ceases to exist
February 18, 1975: Carl Braden dies of Heart attack (Louisville)
1975-1979: Anne works to establish the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice (SOC); leads blacks and whites in campaign against white anti-busing violence in Louisville; Helps SOC respond to KKK resurgence throughout the South
1980-1989: Anne helps bring 10,000 protesters to Greensboro to protest Nazi/Klan murders; Anne fights for racial equality, gender equality, as well as fighting for the environmental and for peace; Anne helps raise support amongst whites for Jesse Jackson presidential campaigns as a alternate delegate / delegate at the 1984 and 1988 Democratic Conventions.
1990-2001: Anne becomes the first recipient of the ACLU’s Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty; many other honors to follow. Anne and Carl inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame (2001); The Wall Between was re-released in 1999
March 6, 2006: Anne’s death.
November 2006: Anne remembered as Anne Braden Institute opens at University of Louisville for Social Justice Research.
John Guiniven said on June 18, 2014
I met Anne Braden shortly after I joined UPI in Louisville in 1967 — my first job after returning from the Peace Corps. She was a remarkable, brave woman and I remember her courage throughout the open housing demonstrations that ran throughout ’67 and, in a way, culminated with the riots that followed the assassination of Dr.King. Sometimes today I feel as if we’re moving backwards, regressing to those pre-civil rights days, and I wonder when the new Anne Bradens will emerge.