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