The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
A ‘Red Scare’ in Louisville
Carl Braden was tried for ‘sedition’ in 1954 after helping a Black family buy a home
ade Vows He’ll Stay With His Blasted Home” was the frontpage headline on June 28, 1954, in the Courier Journal along with a photo of the damaged home of Andrew Wade IV that would begin a landmark legal case involving Carl and Anne Braden. Several months earlier, the Bradens, who were white, assisted Wade and his family, who were Black, in purchasing a house in an all-white neighborhood on Rone Court near Shively. Integrating a neighborhood during the Jim Crow period of the mid-1900s was a significant inflammatory controversy. After moving into this house, the Wades were harassed by “rifle shots being fired at the house, rocks thrown through the living room window, and a wooden cross burned adjacent to it.”
Following the explosion of the Wade house June 27, 1954, a criminal search for the bomber would take an ironic twist that only the “Red Scare” Communist era of the early 1950s, led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, could imagine: Carl Braden was charged with dynamiting the Wade house.
On Oct. 1, 1954, Carl and his wife, Anne, were indicted by a grand jury for this terroristic act. An Oct. 9, 1954, Courier Journal article reported that they were charged with “advocating sedition” and were Communist sympathizers.
As detailed in the court proceedings, “sedition . . . means any person who advocates or suggests by word, act, or writing, any public disorder or resistance to, or the change or modification of, the government, Constitution, or laws of the United States or of this State by force or violence or by unlawful means.”
Carl Braden was tried first, separate from his wife, in early December 1954. Commonwealth’s Attorney A. Scott Hamilton said his office had evidence the explosion was part of a Communist-inspired plot to stir up racial trouble in Louisville.
During a police search of the Braden’s home, 4403 Virginia Ave., material was seized that was labeled “seditious”: pamphlets, correspondence, and books that were Communist-oriented. The newspaper reported Braden’s defense lawyer, Robert Zollinger, implied that this material could have been “planted.” by someone else.
Hamilton refuted this allegation: “They claim we planted these papers … They’re signed by Carl Braden ... and under his name is affixed ‘secretary-treasurer’ (of the Louisville Peace Committee).” Also supposedly found at the Braden house were “six copies of ‘Foundations of Leninism,’ and five copies of a Russian Constitution” which proved, per Hamilton, the Bradens were distributing Communist literature in Louisville, which was a “seditious” act.
In an effort to further prove Carl Braden was guilty of sedition, a “surprise witness” was introduced at the end of the two-week trial. Alberta Ahearn testified that she was an FBI informant and knew personally of Braden’s Communist activities. Per the Dec. 14, 1954, news account, “Braden took the stand in rebuttal to Mrs. Ahearn and denied all her charges against him, or that he is or ever has been a Communist.”
In closing arguments, the prosecution summed up the case against Braden: “Communism is the greatest danger facing us today … (it) is not confined to China, or Indochina, or Korea. You have seen it demonstrated by evidence that communism is marching here … in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
“You can take it from Braden’s own statement, as related to you from the witness stand … and from other evidence, it has been demonstrated … that Carl Braden is a Communist and believes in the Communist way of life. He has given aid and support to communism.”
It took the jury only 3 hours and 9 minutes to convict Carl Braden of “sedition.” The Dec. 14, 1954, Courier Journal had a front page photo of Braden wiping his face as he was led out of the courtroom to jail.
Shortly after, the American Civil Liberties Union supported the appeal of the verdict, stating that it “stands ready to defend the right of peaceable dissent. It is our ultimate protection against totalitarian government.” Braden’s conviction was dismissed a few months later. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state didn’t have the right to prosecute Braden. The state law under which Braden was charged was ruled “unconstitutional.”
Commenting after his release, Braden stated: “We learned long ago that Red Baiting and anti-Communist witch hunts were nothing but smokescreens thrown up by people who control things to cloud the real issues of racial equality, higher wages and other desirable but unprofitable things we’ve worked for.”
Carl, who worked for several newspapers including the Courier Journal, continued with his civil rights activism, along with his wife, Anne. He died Feb. 18, 1975, of a heart attack. He was 60 years old.
At his memorial service, he was eulogized by Black social justice advocate Angela Davis. She was “deeply indebted” to Braden for trying to help free her during her trial in 1972 on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy after a judge was killed and three of his abductors fatally shot in a kidnap attempt in San Jose, California.
Davis, who had been involved in freeing what she calls prisoners being detained because of “political oppression,” said, “As long as there are people unjustly in prisons and being oppressed across the country, our debt to Carl Braden has not been paid”.
Steve Wiser, FAIA, is a local historian, architect, and author.