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Book Review
| Judy Kutulas, The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930–1960, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Pp. 305. $35.00 (ISBN 978-0-8078-3036-9).
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| This is an extraordinarily well-written and deeply researched book about one of this nation's most important organizations—the American Civil Liberties Union. It is all the more remarkable in that the ACLU Papers—located at Princeton University—in both their original and microfilm versions are poorly organized (strikingly enough, the same can be said of that other fount of liberalism, the microfilm version of the NAACP Papers), which makes for rough sledding for the hard-working researcher. To her credit, the author perseveres and supplements her trawling for nuggets in this collection with useful explorations of other archives that contain the papers of various ACLU chapters. Since a central theme of her book is the conflict between the Manhattan based headquarters and the chapters—particularly those in California—her diligent digging for documents pays huge dividends. |
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For although the author does not altogether explain what the ACLU has to do with the "making of modern liberalism" over a pivotal three decade period, she does a good job of shedding a bright spotlight on this pre-eminent legal cum political grouping. For despite its declared mission of lifting high the banner of protecting the right to dissent, at critical moments the ACLU has been found wanting. Though the Northern California chapter performed yeoman service in rushing to the aid of Japanese-Americans facing interment during World War II, the headquarters was much more willing to bend to the will of Washington. And in some of the book's more riveting chapters, the author reveals that the headquarters not only purged Communists but also cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in their often successful efforts to persecute the Communist Party. |
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This latter trend was a turnabout from its origins, as the ACLU's post-World War I rise was often tied to the fortunes of that other left-of-center organization that arose in the wake of the so-called "war to end all wars"—the Communist Party. But a problem for the ACLU was that its frequent defense of left-wingers and the fact that Communists like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn served at the highest level within the organization, led some to conclude that this avatar of civil liberties was little more than a "Communist front." This perception led to the purging of Flynn as the U.S. entry into World War II loomed, which paved the way for two of the more glaring omissions of the ACLU—headquarters's failure to come to the defense of Japanese-Americans and headquarters's often enthusiastic participation in the worst excesses during the high tide of McCarthyism. |
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The ACLU "gathered information" about its Communist-backed rival, the Civil Rights Congress, "with the zeal of spies." This information at times was shared with the authorities. Such misfeasance probably contributed to a major setback of the ACLU when the leading NAACP attorney Charles Houston—the mentor of Thurgood Marshall—"chose the CRC over the ACLU," even as the perils of the Red Scare had become clear (138). Houston seemed to be vindicated when the ACLU was typically laggard when the issue of firing of teachers because of Communist Party membership was raised (141). Civil libertarians were likewise aghast when the ACLU "took 'no action'" when Paul Robeson's passport was seized or when it twiddled its thumbs when the leader of West Coast stevedores, Harry Bridges, was slated for deportation to his native Australia (145). |
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Strikingly, it was during this same era that the ACLU rose vigorously to the defense of Father Arthur Terminello, widely regarded as a vigorously bigoted anti-Semite. This defense may have reassured moderates and conservatives that the ACLU was not a "Communist front" but coupled with its dropping the ball when it came to defending left-wing dissenters, it may have solidified an image of the organization's rank opportunism in the minds of many. |
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A major theme of this book is the often acrimonious disputes separating the headquarters from its chapters, which were not as hesitant in coming to the defense of the left. As it turned out, as these chapters began to wield more influence in the organization as a whole, the ACLU began slowly to return to its mission of full-throated defense of civil liberties. As such, in addition to being a riveting history of how rights are constructed and defended, this book could also serve as a useful primer in organizational dynamics. This revolt of the chapters combined with the rise of the post–1955 civil rights movement also helped to jerk the ACLU headquarters away from its previous muscular anticommunism. |
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The author tells her intriguing story with economy and rigor. An Afterword brings her story up to the contemporary era, as it contemplates the ALCU performance in the wake of the passage of the Patriot Act and the challenge to civil liberties presented by the response to the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As the author tells it, the ACLU when balancing national security and individual rights too often sacrificed the latter. Perhaps it is an encouraging sign that—at least—this failure is now acknowledged by many ACLU members, a grouping that encompasses the author of this very informative book. |
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| Gerald Horne
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| University of Houston |
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