ACLU Attorney A. L. Wirin Kidnapped, Beaten in California
A.L. Wirin, an attorney for the Southern California ACLU affiliate, was kidnapped in rural Brawley, California, taken 15 miles, beaten, and then left in the desert. Wirin had earlier spoken at a meeting of vegetable farm workers, who were attempting to unionize. Wirin survived the attack, but his abductors were never identified or prosecuted.
Wirin became the full-time staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1934. He served in that capacity until 1972 when he suffered a heart attack. He died on February 4, 1978.
Learn more about A.L. Wirin: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070501/A_LIFE07/705010315/-1/A_LIFE07
Learn more about the history of the ACLU of Southern California: http://www.aclusocal.org/our-history/
On the unionization of the farm workers in the 1960s, read: Ronald Taylor, Chavez and the Farm Workers (1977)