Both the national ACLU and the ACLU of Ohio were founded in 1920, a period of American history marred by difficulties that wouldn’t look out of place in today’s news. Following a period of social progressivism after World War I, America was experiencing high inflation, unemployment, and backlash to social and political gains of the 1890s and 1900s. While today we see the targeting of Latinx immigrant communities, in the late 1910s Russian immigrants were the focus of widespread targeting and deportation efforts by the federal government. The Palmer Raids on January 2, 1920, saw the rounding up and arrest of 3,000 “reds” nationwide and was the high point of government action during the so called “first red scare.”
While free speech is a core principle of our nation’s founding, the realities of what free speech entails are much more contentious and nuanced. Just a decade after the Constitution was ratified, the Alien and Sedition Acts as well as the Alien Enemy Act were passed. These laws made printing or saying false or negative things about the government a crime, giving the president the power to remove any dangerous alien he determined was a threat to the country. While the Alien and Sedition Acts are no longer on the books, we can still feel their harm in present day. The Alien Enemies Act was cited by the Trump Administration for the legal basis of his order to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
Later, as political tensions heightened, the government introduced more restrictions to free speech. By 1918, two additional censorship laws passed, The Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, which targeted the “free” press by issuing fines for “willfully making ‘false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces’”. These laws also gave post offices broad powers to exclude any material “advocating or urging treason, insurrection, or forcible resistance to any law of the United States” from the mail. Together, the Espionage and Sedition Acts were the basis for the arrest and successful prosecution and deportation of thousands of Russian immigrants, community leaders, and social activists including leaders of the Social Party and anarchist Emma Goldman.
Founded in 1917 and the precursor to the ACLU, the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) started defending conscientious objectors to the draft and quickly widened their focus to encompass more aspects of speech. The newly formed NCLB educated the public on free speech through pamphlets and assisted victims who were targets of this government overreach and abuse of power. (Sound familiar?) Through legal representation, bail funds, and education, the NCLB fought back against the government’s infringements on civil liberties, and because of this, were often the target of both public backlash and government scrutiny and harassment.
Though we now often see the courts as upholding and defending First Amendment activity, during this period the courts frequently eroded free speech protections in the name of national security and patriotism. However, while the courts were trending against civil liberties, many lawyers, judges, and organizations including the NCLB, made significant strides fighting against the anti-liberty trends, and expanding and protecting speech. In 1920 as the popularity of the “red scare” and the subsequent backlash against immigrants and civil liberties waned, and having experienced some political gains, the NCLB began to see some success in this arena and saw a continued need to defend civil liberties. They changed their name and in this moment we became the American Civil Liberties Union.
So, when people describe the 2020s and the Trump Era as “unprecedented times,” that is not entirely true. While the specifics of today’s battles for civil liberties might look different, the core of the issue is not dissimilar to the 1910s. While the gains made in the beginning of the 20th century were not equally applied to all, (notably leaving communities of color behind), those movements and wins have allowed us to continue to build towards a more perfect union for ALL. The ACLU knows how to fight these latest attempts to erode civil liberties because we have been here before and built the foundation that we have been using to defend “We the People” for over 100 years. We were forged in fire and were literally built to fight these battles.
“Perhaps the best explanation for the expansion of free speech is that over the last century we have learned that it will survive only if we continue to cultivate it. … The founding of the ACLU in 1920 was the critical first step toward making our professions about free speech mean something”– Chris Finan, From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: a History of the Fight for Free Speech in America
