In the 1940s, some hospitals were racially segregated. Black people were not treated in the same area as white people. In 1950, Anne Braden led a hospital racial integration drive in Kentucky. She wanted to show that such racial segregation was a bad idea. In 1951 she led a group of southern white women organized by the Civil Rights Congress to Mississippi. During that march, she was arrested. They were protesting against the execution of Willie McGee, an African American. He had been convicted of the rape of a white woman, Willette Hawkins.