Blog of Rights
Dorothy M.
Ehrlich
01/11/2012
Racial Discrimination

Remembering Gordon Hirabayashi

By Dorothy M. Ehrlich, ACLU at 10:15am

Gordon Hirabayashi was an American-born student at the University of Washington in 1942, when he was ordered in his senior year to report to an internment camp in northern California. He refused.

Only a handful of remarkably courageous individuals defied the internment orders. Hirabayashi was not only the youngest; his decision was a clear act of civil disobedience based on his deeply held pacifist beliefs.

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03/25/2011

Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

By Dorothy M. Ehrlich, ACLU at 12:39pm

A catastrophic fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory 100 years ago today. By the time it was over, 146 people had died. Many lay dead on the sidewalks off Washington Square in the middle of New York's Greenwich Village, having thrown themselves out windows to escape the flames. Many of the terrified victims — mostly young garment workers, as young as 14, and nearly all Italian or Jewish immigrant women — were engulfed by the devastating flames, unable to escape through the stairways that had been padlocked by the factory owners, and trapped beyond the reach of the firefighters' ladders.

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02/24/2011

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

By Dorothy M. Ehrlich, ACLU at 3:31pm

Chanting, "This is what democracy looks like," tens of thousands of demonstrators have filled the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, to insist that the right of unions to organize and collectively bargain be protected.

These demonstrations have now spread to Indiana and Ohio as well as other states where activists are effectively using the First Amendment as a powerful tool to ensure that the right to freely associate — to form a union and to bargain collectively — is defended against these concerted anti-labor attacks.

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02/04/2011

Remembering Civil Liberties Hero Fred Korematsu

By Dorothy M. Ehrlich, ACLU at 5:58pm

Last Sunday we celebrated a new holiday declared by the state of California: “Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution.” It was an opportunity to remember the simple courage, in the face of grave injustice, displayed by a quiet man who defied the World War II Executive Order in 1942 sending 120,000 Japanese-Americans to concentration camps. January 31 would have been Fred’s 92nd birthday.

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02/11/2010

Join Us to Discuss Race and Criminal Justice in America

By Dorothy M. Ehrlich, ACLU at 6:05pm

Join us on February 18, 2010, at 6 p.m. at Demos in New York City for a discussion about race and criminal justice in America with civil rights advocate and litigator Michelle Alexander.

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06/27/2008

Trumbo Tackles Blacklist in New Film

By Dorothy M. Ehrlich, ACLU at 3:34pm

Trumbo, a documentary film released today, tells the story of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s courage in resolutely refusing to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the darkest days of the anti-Communist witch hunts of the 1940s and 50s. The film has great relevance for today’s troubled times, and serves as a powerful reminder of why principles matter and how the failure to abide by them can result in lasting damage.

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