Braden, Anne, 1924-2006

Braden discusses her background and the background of her husband, the late Carl Braden working with the Courier-Journal newspaper during the 1940s; the Wade desegregation case and her husband's trial for sedition in 1954; anti-Vietnam War activities in Louisville; and Ms. Braden's work with Progress in Education (PIE), a pro-busing organization active in Louisville during the 1970s.

Braden, who became a nationally known figure in 1954 when she and her husband were charged with sedition for helping a black family buy a house in a white Louisville neighborhood, recounts her memories of the 1950s.

Civil rights activist and journalist Anne Braden talks about her early years as an activist in Louisville from 1947 through the early 1950s. The focus is on the intersection of the labor movement and the civil rights movement, including integration within labor union. Topics include Braden's career as a reporter, the Farm Equipment Workers Union, the Progressive Party, and the beginnings of the movement for integrated hospitals in Louisville.

Civil rights activist and journalist Anne Braden talks about the civil rights movement in Louisville in the 1950s and 1960s. Topics explored include efforts for school integration, the public reaction to it, her family's experiences with school integration, and redistricting of the city; the West End Community Council and its efforts to keep the West End neighborhood integrated, white flight, and the open housing movement; the activities of SCEF (Southern Conference Educational Fund); the emergence of youth movements; the beginnings of groups like CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the Committee for Democratic Schools, and the Gandhi Corps; Black Power organizations in Louisville like JOMO (Junta of Militant Organizations) and the Black Panthers; the trial of the Black 6 and the protests surrounding it; and many individuals who were involved in the civil rights movement.

A tape of a civil rights rally that took place in Louisville, KY in Spring 1967. The speaker is allegedly Rev. A.D. Williams King, brother of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sister Colley, formerly Sister John Martin, was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1928. She served in the Archdiocese of Louisville for nearly half a century as an educator, mediator, facilitator, trainer in mediation and conflict management. She served as principal of Christ the King School from 1961 to 1964. She then was appointed to Supervisor of Schools for the Louisville Archdiocese. In the interview, Sister Colley speaks of witnessing prejudice firsthand in the very segregated city of Nashville as a child. She said she realized that racism was unjust, though her own parents subscribed to such beliefs in her youth. Her formative years were spent in Texas, where she was educated by the Sisters of Loretto. She would join the order right out of high school. Once she was relocated to Louisville in 1961, she would go on to join the West End Community Council and become the secretary of the council. Through her involvement, she helped to combat many social justice issues that plagued the city at the time, namely the Open Housing cause and the War on Poverty. Her work specifically with the War on Poverty led to her work with the Head Start programs in the city. Sister Colley states that education was the best path to combat the effects of racial equality. Sister Colley recalls her friendship with Anne Braden, whom she defended against accusations of Communism and prevented her from being expelled from the WECC. She also recalls how she marched with Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. when he came to Louisville in 1967 and how she also travelled to Washington D.C. to protest the inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1969.

Ira Grupper was born in New York City in 1944. Before moving to Louisville in 1969, Ira was involved in rent strikes in New York and he took part in the civil rights movement all over the South with the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). In this interview, Ira talks about his personal friendship with Carl and Anne Braden, whom he worked alongside as part of the SCEF (Southern Conference Education Fund). Other topics include Ira's work as a commissioner and eventual Vice-Chairman of the Louisville and Jefferson County Human Relations Commission. He talks about being a staunch advocate for workers rights and an improvement in labor conditions. He also discusses his involvement with the busing situation during the 1970s and his role as an outreach spokesman who went to white communities to attempt to persuade them to support desegregation in the local schools.

Views on the death penalty in Kentucky and the Braden trial in the 1950s.

Nancy Pollock, born in Springfield, Kentucky, moved to the city of Louisville at the age of 2 and began to get involved in the civil rights movement at the age of 14. She talks about her first experience with racism and segregation when she was 9 years old and the owner of an ice cream parlor physically threw her out of his shop while she was eating an ice cream cone. Following that she began to get involved at age 14 with the demonstrations happening in Louisville, as the youngest person there oftentimes. Pollock discusses her entire time in the movement, her various involvements in different groups, violence that she experienced and saw, her experiences in Louisville and outside of Louisville in Atlanta, Chicago, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and her involvement in the 1970s with the Black Panther Party. Topics include: her relationship with Anne Braden, Stokeley Carmichael, John Lewis, and various other figures, demonstrations (those that she led and those that she participated in) during the accommodations campaigns, the makeup of those within the accommodation demonstrations, involvement with Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE, the time that she was arrested for leading a demonstration at Hasenour's, the hunger strike that she participated in in Frankfort, the 1986 riot that happened in Louisville and her understanding of what happened and why, her involvement in the Black Panther Party in Louisville, Chicago, and Cincinnati, the differences between the west coast and east coast Black Panther Party chapters, the changes in the movement and within the various organizations over time, her work after she left the Black Panther Party in 1974, the changes in Louisville over the years that she was involved in the civil rights movement and her thoughts on who the leaders of the movement were in Louisville.