In Memoriam: AFSCME 2477's James Bradford
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Jim Bradford, who died Sept.
13 at
84, spent much of his life in quiet obscurity
at the Library of Congress as an
assistant bookbinder and a researcher. But he
was a most unusual library
employee — a 6-foot, 287-pound weightlifter
and two-time Olympian. In the
heavyweight category, Mr. Bradford (right)
twice took home a
silver medal, at the 1952 Olympic Games in
Helsinki and the 1960 Games in Rome. An African
American, largely unfeted in
Washington in the 1950s, Bradford had to take
unpaid leave from the Library of
Congress to compete on the world stage. “Nah,
they just ignored it,” he told Washington Post journalist
David Maraniss, author of the book “Rome
1960: The Olympics That Changed the
World.” “I come back to my job and that is
it. That was par for the course
then.” About eight years ago, he retired from
the Library of Congress, where he
was a past president of AFSCME Local
2477.
- adapted from The Washington Post; photo
courtesy of The Post