https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/298
“When the Wades moved into the home in May 1954, a neighborhood furor erupted. The home was shot at and a cross was burned in the yard. This incident coincided with the Supreme Court’s decision in the “Brown v. the Board of Education” case. This landmark decision, handed down just two days after the Wades moved in, sought to integrate the nation’s public schools “with all deliberate speed.” This decision only added to the racial tension in Louisville.
The situation deteriorated further when, on June 27, the house was bombed. Some thought it was planned by the Bradens as part of communist plot. That theory proved powerful when the Bradens and several others were indicted on criminal conspiracy charges. Carl Braden was tried and convicted under a state sedition law. He served seven months before the state revoked the law he was convicted under. Charges against Braden and the others indicted were dropped in 1956.”
“The incident … proved to be an important herald for the open housing drive that was embraced by the larger Civil Rights movement. This focus accompanied much of the Civil Rights movement’s goals of justice and equality and produced legislation such as the 1968 Fair Housing Act.”