Thanks to my FB friend Pamela Michael for recalling the principled life in struggle of Carl Braden:
Below, the mugshot of Carl Braden. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for buying a home in his name, in place of his friend (a veteran), because the real estate broker refused to sell to Negroes (1954).
In 1954, Carl Braden, a white journalist and civil rights supporter from Louisville, Kentucky, was arrested for an act that challenged one of the country’s most entrenched systems of discrimination. He and his wife, Anne, had purchased a suburban home in their own names on behalf of their Black friends, Andrew and Charlotte Wade, after the Wades were denied the right to buy the property because of their race. The gesture was simple but radical for its time—a direct challenge to segregation in American housing.
Shortly after the Wades moved in, their home was attacked. Crosses were burned on the lawn, shots were fired through the windows, and finally the house was bombed. Instead of prosecuting those who carried out the violence, authorities charged Carl Braden with sedition, claiming that he was attempting to incite unrest by promoting racial integration. He was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in prison, though the conviction was later overturned.
This mugshot shows him during that period—a quiet defiance in his expression, the calm of a man who believed conscience outweighed conformity. His case became a defining moment in the struggle against segregation and helped expose the depth of racial injustice outside the South’s major cities. Added Fact: Carl and Anne Braden continued their activism for decades, becoming leading voices in the civil rights and antiwar movements. In 2007, the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights posthumously inducted them into the state’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Re: A Kentucky Hero
Posted by gm on 10/16/2025, 9:33 am, in reply to "A Kentucky Hero"
A "quiet defiance in his expression". Absolutely.. he carried his inner strength & determination on his face, though in a...in other words you pick up that understated quality almost..umm, just hard to describe it but you can tell..
Right now, we about to confront lots of his type, which will checkmate the MAGA movement.. Some judges out there are doing it already, and some are republicans...
Re: A Kentucky Hero
Posted by gm on 10/16/2025, 3:35 pm, in reply to "A Kentucky Hero"
A "quiet defiance in his expression". Absolutely.. he carried his inner strength & determination on his face, though in a...in other words you pick up that understated quality almost..umm, just hard to describe it but you can tell..
Right now, we about to confront lots of his type, which will checkmate the MAGA movement.. Some judges out there are doing it already, and some are republicans...
A "quiet defiance in his expression". Absolutely.. he carried his inner strength & determination on his face, though in a...in other words you pick up that understated quality almost..umm, just hard to describe it but you can tell..
Right now, we about to confront lots of his type, which will checkmate the MAGA movement.. Some judges out there are doing it already, and some are republicans...
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