The 1950s
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1950
ACLU Newsletter On Free Speech Advocacy During Red Scare
This November 1950 edition of the ACLU’s newsletter documents our work to protect free speech and civil liberties as the second Red Scare swept over the United States.
1951
ACLU Report from 1951: "Security and Freedom, the Great Challenge"
In the 1951 ACLU annual report, ACLU founder Roger Baldwin wrote: "Never in our thirty years were obligations so heavy, nor the states for the Union and all democratic forces so high.”
ACLU's "20 Questions for Civil Liberties"
This brochure features 20 questions on civil liberties to introduce the ACLU's work and let test takers know how they can become members.
1952
"The Need — And the Chance — For Equality," ACLU National Records & Archives, 1952
This 1952 pamphlet from the ACLU includes a report originally printed by journalist Malcom Ross in The New York Times Magazine about the state of racial equality in America, with a foreword about how Ross’s report should guide the organization’s future work.
ACLU Press Release Announcing the Filing of an Amicus Brief in Brown v. Board of Education
One of the century's most significant Supreme Court decisions declared racially segregated schools unconstitutional, wiping out the "separate but equal" doctrine announced in the infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. The ACLU actively supported this victory by submitting a friend-of-the-court brief backing the NAACP’s arguments.
1954
Fighting for Free Speech During McCarthyism
During the anti-Communist witch hunts of the Cold War, the ACLU challenged a wave of assaults on freedom of belief and association perpetrated in the name of national security. In 1954 John Thomas Watkins, a labor organizer, was convicted in contempt of Congress for refusing to speak about former associates not engaged in communist activities. Watkins challenged this conviction in the courts, and we participated as an amicus curiae. In 1957, the Supreme Court reversed Watkin’s conviction, a victory which curbed the investigative powers of the House Un-American Activities Committee on First Amendment grounds and marked the beginning of the end of communist party membership inquiries. Seen here is an excerpt of Watkins’ historic testimony.
1957
Attorney Lawrence Speiser with ACLU Client and Activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti
In 1957, ACLU attorneys Lawrence Speiser (right) and Al Bendich defended poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (left) and his publishing company, City Lights Books, for publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." U.S. Customs officials had seized the books, stating, "You wouldn't want your children to come across it." San Francisco Superior Court Judge Clayton Horn ruled in this landmark case that the book could not be suppressed as obscene by local authorities.
1958
An Audio Clip of ACLU Attorney Lawrence Spencer Successfully Arguing First Amendment Case in Front of the Supreme Court
ACLU lawyer Lawrence Speiser, who headed the ACLU's Washington office from 1959 to 1970, successfully challenged a California law requiring veterans to sign a loyalty oath to qualify for a property tax exemption. Speiser, who represented himself and another veteran, Daniel Prince, argued the case before the Supreme Court and achieved a 7–1 victory.
