ACLU Banned from New York City Schools
The New York City School Board on this day banned representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from speaking in public schools.
Right-wing super-patriots had attacked the ACLU as “un-American” for its defense of the free speech and due process rights of political radicals. The ACLU sought to discuss “Old Fashioned Americanism” in the schools.
This incidents was one of several when the ACLU was barred from speaking in the New York City schools. See, for example, March 19, 1928; November 27, 1928, when the ACLU won a short-lived victory; and April 29, 1929
On the struggles of the ACLU in the 1920s, read: Samuel Walker, In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (1999)
Visit the ACLU web site
Learn more about student speech and privacy