Biography
Carl Braden was a trade unionist, journalist, and activist who was known for his work in the civil rights movement along with his wife Anne Braden.
In 1954, the Bradens assisted an African-American couple, Andrew and Charlotte Wade, who wanted to buy a suburban home but had been unable to do so due to housing discrimination. The Bradens purchased a house on behalf of the Wades in a white neighborhood and deeded it over to the Wade family. White segregationists immediately lashed out — burning a cross into the lawn, throwing rocks, shooting at, and eventually bombing the house. Carl Braden was charged with sedition. Although housing discrimination was illegal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling specifically on a case in Louisville, Buchanan v. Warley, in 1917, charges were brought against Braden for hatching a communist plot to stir up a race war. A friend of the Wades was also charged with bombing the house to make it appear to have been done by others. No charges were filed regarding the other incidents. Braden rightfully denied the accusations. He was convicted on December 13, 1954, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His conviction was then overturned.
In 1951, when compelled to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Braden refused to answer questions posed to him, saying the questions violated his First Amendment rights. The House Un-American Activities Committee (also called HUAC) was a committee within the United States House of Representatives dedicated to identifying agents of Fascism or Communism, ideologies deemed "un-American". The case was heard before the Supreme Court of the United States as Braden v. United States, 365 U.S. 431 (1961). The court ruled against Braden, saying his conviction was constitutional. Braden was sentenced to a year in prison, and a drive for clemency in his case was led by Martin Luther King Jr. He was released after serving nine months of the sentence.
The Bradens were dedicated to the freedom struggle their entire lives, serving as allies willing to put everything on the line.
The April 17, 1961 National Guardian describes Braden and Wilkinson on a speaking tour before beginning their HUAC-contempt prison terms in Atlanta, then anticipated for late April or early May. An April 21 New York abolition rally was to support their families during imprisonment. This explicitly prospective report is not used as proof of an admission day or time already served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1961-04-17-13-27-nat-guardian.pdf#page=1
Anne Braden’s first-person account describes a separate 1967 Pike County sedition prosecution: she and Carl were added as defendants and jailed after refusing to post $10,000 bond. The account says a federal court invalidated the state sedition law on September 14, 1967. It does not give either person’s custody endpoints or duration; the McSurelys’ one-week confinement is not assigned to the Bradens.
Southern Exposure, September/October 1983, printed page 24 / PDF page 26.
A contemporary National Guardian report states that Carl Braden spent about eight months at the La Grange Reformatory before supporters secured his release on $40,000 appeal bail. It records a fifteen-year imposed sentence and a $5,000 fine, and says his notice of appeal was filed November 16, 1955. By the time of the report he was free on bail and spoke at the newspaper’s November 17 anniversary banquet. Neither the appeal filing nor that public appearance establishes his physical release day; the imposed fifteen years is not time served.
