The American Civil Liberties Union: A History

For 80 years, the ACLU has been a lightning rod of controversy. Is it a patriotic group heroically defending our rights guaranteed under the Constitution, or is it a radical faction intent on extending "rights" in directions the Founding Fathers never intended? In this spirited history of the ACLU and its landmark cases, viewers will learn that the ACLU was created in the wake of WWI by the aristocratic figure of Roger Baldwin (one of many law abiding citizens harassed or imprisoned for their nonconforming views) and a small band of believers, who set out to make America live up to the declarations outlined in the Bill of Rights. For most of its history the ACLU has been an equal opportunity offender, defending atheists, civil rights demonstrators, the Ku Klux Klan, and American Nazis. The ACLU lost its most famous case--the Scopes evolution trial of the '20s, which pitted Clarence Darrow against three time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan--but won in the court of public opinion. The organization was not so triumphant in other areas, failing to prevent the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, and backing down in the face of McCarthyism in the '50s. ACLU executives and commentators as varied as Oliver North and Molly Ivins offer their slant on the story of the ACLU and its founder, Roger Baldwin, who lived to be the grand old, if irritating, man of the civil liberties movement, passing away in the 1980s as he approached his 100th birthday. An outstanding selection for school, public, and academic libraries. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)