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When the ACLU was founded in 1920, the guarantees provided by the Bill of Rights had little practical meaning for ordinary people. The advancement of civil liberties in the past 90 years represents one of the most significant developments in American history, and the ACLU has been integral to this process.
A new exhibit details the organization's 90-year history of defending the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, taking viewers through a tour of the ACLU's historic victories and the ordinary individuals whose efforts to exercise their rights fueled the organization's journey.
The exhibit will be on display at the Hartford Public Library from November 22 to December 1 during regular library hours: Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
An opening reception took place on November 23. (Click to see photos). During the reception several former plaintiffs in ACLU-CT cases spoke about their experience with the ACLU-CT, and Legal Director Sandy Staub gave a presentation on current cases.
See event flyer here: 90th Anniversary Poster
The traveling exhibit provides an historical overview of the ACLU's many monumental achievements since its founding in 1920. The organization was established in response to the notorious Palmer Raids in which the Department of Justice, led by U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, began rounding up and deporting so-called radicals because of their political views without warrants and without regard to constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure.
The exhibit includes the stories of some of the courageous people the ACLU has represented, including John Scopes, a teacher accused of violating a Tennessee state law against the teaching of evolution in the 1920s; Ozzie Powell, one of the "Scottsboro Boys" sentenced to death in Alabama in the 1930s for allegedly raping a white woman, a crime he did not commit; Mildred and Richard Loving, an interracial couple charged in the 1960s with violating the state's "Racial Integrity Act"; and Diane Schroer, an Army veteran whose job offer by the Library of Congress was rescinded when it learned that Schroer was in the process of changing gender.
The exhibit also highlights the ACLU's key role in the passage of major pieces of legislation, including the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, guaranteeing eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family responsibilities; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, prohibiting discrimination based on disability in employment, public services, accommodations, transportation and technology; and the periodic reauthorizations of several provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, protecting every American's constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.
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