The Wall Between

In 1954, Anne Braden and her husband bought a house in an all-white neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, on behalf of a black couple, the Wades. Braden's account of mob violence, bombing of the house, and imprisonment of her husband on charges of sedition was a finalist for the 1958 National Book Award. This edition contains a new epilogue tracing the lives of the Wades and Bradens before events described in the book, and reports on the Bradens' continuing activities in the civil rights movement. Braden teaches civil rights history at Northern Kentucky University.
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In 1954, Anne and Carl Braden bought a house in an all-white neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, on behalf of a black couple, Andrew and Charlotte Wade. The Wall Between is Anne Braden's account of what resulted from this act of friendship: mob violence against the Wades, the bombing of the house, and imprisonment for her husband on charges of sedition.

A finalist for the 1958 National Book Award, The Wall Between is one of only a few first-person accounts from civil rights movement activists — even rarer for its author being white. Offering an insider's view of movement history, it is as readable for its drama as for its sociological importance. It contains no heroes or villains, according to Braden — only people urged on by forces of history that they often did not understand.

In an epilogue written for this edition, the author traces the lives of the Bradens and Wades subsequent to events in the original book and reports on her and her husband's continuing activities in the civil rights movement. Looking back on that history, she warns readers that the entire nation still must do what white southerners who became activists had to do in the 1950s and 1960s: turn its values, assumptions, and policies upside down.

In his foreword to this edition, Julian Bond reflects on the significance of the events Anne Braden describes and the importance of the work the Bradens and others like them undertook. What is missing today, he observes, is not Wades who want a home but Bradens who will help them fight for one. Today, he: says, "ending racism is largely the segregated concern of Blacks alone."