This year is the ACLU's 90th anniversary.  To kick off our anniversary festivities, ACLU leaders gathered at Ellis Island last night to celebrate how far freedom has come in the last 90 years and to commit ourselves to leading freedom forward over the next 90 years.  It was a privilege for me to join some of the finest legal minds in the country and our most loyal supporters for an evening of reflection and resolve.

Celebrating on Ellis Island lent a special poignancy to the night.  The ACLU was founded in large part as a response to the Palmer raids where immigrants were arrested and deported for their political views by then Attorney General Mitchell Palmer.  Ninety years after the Palmer raids, we have entered another period of xenophobia and racism.  Last night, Marian Shee shared her experience of being imprisoned as a child in the Japanese internment camps.  She thanked the ACLU for challenging the internment of the Japanese Americans in court.  She went on to share that she lives in Arizona now, and once again feels targeted because of her race.  Her husband, Jim Shee, is a client in the ACLU challenge to the Arizona profiling law.

Other ACLU clients also shared their stories:  ACLU Client Florida Dad Martin Gill who is fighting to adopt the two little boys he and his partner of over ten years have parented since 2004 and ACLU Client Kansas teacher Susan Epperson who successfully challenged the prohibition on teaching evolution in 1968.

Suzanne Vega, Greg Proops, and other stars read excerpts from famous ACLU cases including one of my favorites, Loving v. Virginia, that struck down the ban on interracial marriage.  They read a letter from Clarence Gideon of Gideon v. Wainwright to the ACLU enlisting us in his case.

Last night, I was reminded of why I do this work.  We are all part of a history much larger than ourselves.  Each of us has a role to play in shaping America.  The Bill of Rights means much more today than it did just 90 years ago because of the courage of folks like Marian Shee, Mildred Loving, Clarence Gideon and so many more, and because there was an organization, the ACLU, to defend them in court.  I am very proud to be a card carrying member of the ACLU

New York City Michael Bloomberg declared yesterday American Civil Liberties Union Day.  In his official proclamation, he quoted civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, "A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess."  Won't you join us in defending the rights of everyone?  Together, we can build a stronger democracy.