Director to Attend Library Screening of Inspiring Anne Braden Documentary

A moving portrait of the rebellious Kentucky woman whom Dr. Martin Luther King praised in his earth-shattering Letter from a Birmingham Jail as a commendable white ally, it also includes interviews with Dr. Angela Davis, Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon.

Authorities charged Anne Braden with sedition for attempting to desegregate her Louisville neighborhood in 1954, part of a lifetime crusade for racial justice.  Dr. King highlighted Braden’s rejection of her segregationist upbringing, singling her out as “eloquent & prophetic” and one of just a handful of white allies whom he could trust.

Tafari Robertson, founding member of the Pan-African Action Committee, will briefly address film attendees prior to the screening, speaking to the push — led by his organization and ardently supported by Cinema Club — to establish a Black Studies program at Texas State.

Anne Lewis, an independent documentary-maker — particularly of working-class efforts to spark social change — and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin in the School of Radio/Television/Film, will introduce the film and field questions afterward.

Folksinger Joan Baez calls Anne Braden: Southern Patriot, “A gem of a film, accented with freedom fighters who speak firsthand about carving a path through a traumatized, violent, racist South, to make way for one of the largest and most effective nonviolent movements for social change the world has ever seen.”

The screening is free and open to the public.