SCLC #377 — Carl Braden 1975 memorial: program absent-message list vs newspaper report

What the leaves show

Rosa Parks Papers box 21 folder 1 (leaves 0013–0015) preserve Carl Braden’s February 23, 1975 Louisville memorial materials. The advance program lists Angela Davis, Lyman Johnson, and Suzy Post under messages from people “who could not attend,” to be read by Rev. Ben Chavis. The February 27 Louisville Defender instead reports Davis spoke and captions a staff photograph of Davis, Johnson, and Post as giving brief remarks.

Craft: a preprinted program is not a reliable final attendance record; the cause of the discrepancy (plan change, heading error, or report mischaracterization) remains unknown. Archival presence among Parks’s papers does not prove Parks attended. Variant spellings Suzy/Suzie are not two people.

Source-checked: repo.