The 1920s
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1920
ACLU Pamphlet, “Since the Buford Sailed: A Summary of the Developments in the Deportation Situation”
As a result of the 1918 Immigration Act, the ship USAT Buford in 1919 was used to deport more than 200 people accused of being communists and political radicals from the United States during the first Red Scare. This 1920 pamphlet from the ACLU summarizes the mass deportations and outlines the risks to democracy posed by the Immigration Act.
1921
ACLU Article On Exploitation of Black Communities
This article features private testimonies of white Southerners and the personal testimony of William Pickens, who would go on to become assistant field secretary for the NAACP, to expose the exploitation of Black labor and argue for the protection of both Black and white workers’ civil liberties.
ACLU 1921 Annual Report, “The Fight for Free Speech”
This report documents the ACLU’s earliest fight for the freedom of speech, a civil liberty under attack during World War I. The ACLU was founded in the wake of the Espionage Act, the 1918 Sedition Act, and the Palmer Raids — and the organization continues fighting to protect the freedom of speech to this day.
1922
ACLU Report: A Year’s Fight For Freedom of Speech
Building on the 1921 annual report, the 1922 annual report continues to document the ACLU’s earliest fights to defend freedom of speech throughout World War I.
1925
Benjamin Gitlow, One of ACLU’s First Clients
Radical activist Benjamin Gitlow is pictured here in 1925. While Gitlow was convicted in Gitlow v. New York under New York’s criminal anarchy law, this first landmark Supreme Court case for the ACLU established that the Fourteenth Amendment “incorporates” the First Amendment’s free speech clause and was monumental in applying free speech protections to the states.
ACLU’s Legal Team for the Scopes “Monkey Trial”
When biology teacher John T. Scopes was charged with violating a Tennessee ban on teaching evolution, the ACLU was ready to defend him and secured celebrated attorney Clarence Darrow for his defense. The resulting case, The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, was arguably one of the ACLU’s most famous early cases and is often referred to as the Scopes “Monkey Trial.”
1929
Minutes of First ACLU Annual Board of Directors Meeting
These meeting notes come from one of the earliest board meetings of the American Civil Liberties Union. National committee members met at the national office on Fifth Avenue to discuss by-laws of the organization. Among them included founder of the ACLU Roger N. Baldwin and co-director Forest Bailey.
ACLU Pamphlet, “Blue Coats and Reds”
This pamphlet published by the ACLU criticizes the American police force for exceeding their power and threatening citizens’ rights and liberties through censorship. About 200 questionnaires were mailed to the heads of police departments in cities across the country to inquire about their approaches.
ACLU Client Mary Ware Dennett, Author of “The Sex Side of Life”
Mary Ware Dennett wrote a sex education pamphlet, “The Sex Side of Life,” in 1915 after discovering most existing sex education material contained inaccurate information or relied on shame to dissuade young people from having sex. The pamphlet was radical for its time, covering topics including STDs and masturbation. It also did not preach abstinence. Four years after the pamphlet was published, it was deemed “obscene” and banned from being distributed via mail under the 1873 Comstock Act. In 1929, Dennett was arrested. The ACLU represented Dennett in court, arguing the pamphlet was an important educational tool. In 1930, the court sided in Dennett’s favor, and she was free to continue distributing “The Sex Side of Life.”
