When Anne Braden (1927-2006) was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of fame she said, “The Battle goes on as far as I’m Concerned.” That battle ended for Anne Braden when she passed away on Monday March 6, 2006. It was a life that had begun in Louisville, Kentucky. During the Depression, her family moved to Mississippi and Alabama, where she spent her childhood. In 1947, she returned to Kentucky to work as a journalist covering courthouse trials. These trials made her aware of the injustices being wrought by our society. This motivated her to spend her life battling on behalf of civil and economic justice.

Anne Braden and her husband, Carl Braden, attracted national attention in 1954, when they purchased a home in an all white neighborhood and transferred title to an African-American family that had been unable to buy in the neighborhood. White supremacists burned crosses in front of the home. When this didn’t drive the family out, the house was fire bombed. The grand jury determined that the fire bombing of the home was a communist plot by Carl Braden. He was tried for sedition and sentenced to 15 years. He served 8 months of the sentences before it was overturned.

In 1967, Anne and Carl would face sedition charges again. This time, for protesting the strip mining in Pike County, Kentucky. This trial became the test case that eventually ruled Kentucky’s sedition law unconstitutional. Anne continued throughout her life to be involved in some of the most famous protests, including Willie McGee, Angela Davis, Ben Chavis and the Wilmington Ten. As recently as last fall she was went to Washington D.C. to protest the Iraq war; where she rode in her wheel chair with the marchers.

At the age of 81, she died a quiet death from complications of pneumonia and dehydration. She leaves behind a lifetime of remarkable achievements. She will be missed on the front lines by those battling racial and economic injustices.