Title: Carl and Anne Braden Papers

Date/Date Range :   1947-1967

Extent: 9.0 linear feet

Abstract:

The papers of Carl and Anne Braden, civil rights workers with the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), number approximately 4,700 items and occupy 9 linear feet of shelf space. The material covers their work in the civil rights program throughout America from 1947 to 1967.

Call number: MS-0425

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This manuscript collection was presented to the University of Tennessee Library in 1968 by Carl and Anne Braden. The collection is part of the actual files belonging to the Bradens. The bulk of the Braden Papers had previously been given to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Carl and Anne Braden Papers, MS-0425. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of six boxes.

Carl Braden is a field organizer for the Southern Conference Educational Fund, New Orleans, and assistant editor of the Southern Patriot, published by SCEF. SCEF is a Southwide organization of white and black citizens dedicated to action to end segregation and discrimination based on race, creed, color, or national origin. It has been in existence since 1938. The president is the Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who is also President of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and a noted leader in Birmingham.

The Southern Patriot covers events in the field of civil rights all over the South. It also tells about the people who are active in the movement. The editor is Mrs. Anne Braden, wife of Carl Braden. Mrs. Braden is the author of The Wall Between, a book on race relations based on the Bradens' experiences in Louisville, Ky., after they helped a Negro family to buy a house in a so-called white area. Carl Braden was sentenced to 15 years in prison as a result of this episode but was freed by court action after serving 8 months. In 1959 he refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee in Atlanta, Ga., and was sentenced to a year in prison for contempt. He served 9 months of this sentence.

Braden's work takes him all over the South, however, he concentrates his efforts mostly in Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, and Kentucky. He was under injunction not to work for integration in Alabama but he refused to obey the injunction and it was dropped in 1963. He has been before investigating committees in Mississippi and Florida and has been attacked by similar bodies in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia. This animosity results from his work of organizing white and Negro integrationists throughout the area.

Braden was a newspaperman for 24 years prior to the sale of the house in Louisville in 1954. Newspapers for which he has worked include The Louisville Courier Journal, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as Newsweek. He has also edited several labor newspapers.

The papers of Carl and Anne Braden, civil rights workers with the Southern Conference Educational Fund, number approximately 4700 items and occupy 9 linear feet of shelf space. The material covers their work in the civil rights program throughout America from 1947 to 1967.

The collection includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, news letters, financial records, mailing lists and court records relating to their work with the SCEF and the civil rights program in general. There are also two tape recordings of the proceedings of the Washington Conference on Voting Restrictions in 1960. The collection also includes copies of Anne Braden's book The Wall Between in Polish and Italian. Containers one through five are organized in subject files alphabetically. Box number six contains miscellaneous pamphlets and newspaper clippings; notebooks; tape recordings; and assorted address cards. The copies of Mrs. Braden's book, The Wall Between, are classified and can be located through the card catalog.

• Braden, Anne, 1924-.
• Braden, Carl.
• Southern Conference Educational Fund.
• Civil rights movements -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century.