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Anne Braden was raised to be a southern belle. Instead she became a revolutionary who helped to shape the self-understanding of the entire civil rights movement. From her earliest days as a trade unionist in the radical wing of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, she had been one of a small handful of white Southerners willing to take a stand against Jim Crow in the 1950s. As a journalist throughout the 1960s, she offered a penetrating, historically-grounded analysis of events which was widely read by civil rights activists. She was an informal advisor to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; a close associate of key leaders such as Ella Baker, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Myles Horton; and a mentor to countless young revolutionaries until her death in 2006.
At a time when the North American ruling class went to great lengths to prevent any semblance of continuity between movements, Braden forged direct links between the radical left of the 1930s and 40s, and that of the 1960s. Beginning with her trial for sedition in 1954, she endured constant attacks at the hands of the U.S. government, largely due to her association with Communism. And yet, as deeply as she influenced the development of the early civil rights movement, the scale of Braden’s contributions and insights have either been redacted to meet the needs of the official version of civil rights movement history, or been made palatable to the very same power structure she spent her entire life working to overturn. Anne Braden Speaks corrects this distorted narrative. Finally, and for the first time, we have full access to a representative collection of Braden’s writings, speeches, and letters, and the full spectrum of their subject matter: from the relationship between race and capitalism, to the role of the South in American society, to the function of anti-communism.
— William J. Barber, II, President of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
"Anne Braden braved a lifetime of attacks to write and organize from the trenches and empower the Other America’s search for the ideals of dignity, justice, freedom and equality. “I don’t think any of us can be liberated until we all are,” she wrote, and her words remain fresh, engaging, and instructive in our continuing struggles for a better world."
— Michael K. Honey, author of "To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice," and a former southern organizer with Carl and Anne Braden
"Essential reading on movement building from one of the most committed white anti-racists of the 20th century. Anne Braden’s insights on the chokehold of white supremacy on U.S. culture, laced with her relentlessly humanistic perspective, remain as timely today as they were in her lifetime."
— Catherine Fosl, Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, University of Louisville and author, "Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South"
"Anne Braden embodied the rich tradition of freedom struggles in the U.S. South. She was a teacher to countless movement leaders and activists. This illuminating book is required reading for anyone who seeks to understand the movements of the past and the lessons they hold for today."
— Rosalyn Pelles, civil rights activist, former Executive Director of the National Rainbow Coalition and former Director of the Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Department, AFL-CIO
Anne Braden (1924-2006) was a critically acclaimed author and renowned freedom fighter who had a hand in the formation of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign, and the Rainbow Coalition. Fundamental to Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF), she also co-founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice (SOC), and the National Anti-Klan Network (NAKN).
Ben Wilkins (Editor)
Ben Wilkins has been an activist in labor and civil rights struggles from the start. As an organizer with a healthcare workers union local in Michigan, he led campaigns among hospital and nursing home workers. Currently, as part of the Fight for $15 movement, he organizes low wage workers across the U.S. South from his home base in North Carolina.