ACLU Loses Suit Over Right to Speak in NYC Schools
The ACLU on this day lost a suit seeking the right to speak in the New York City public schools.
The suit sought the right to hold “an old fashioned free speech meeting” in the schools. This incident was one chapter in a long campaign by the ACLU in the 1920s to win the right to speak in the schools. The court did, however, make its ruling contingent upon the willingness of the school board to grant a hearing on a new application by the ACLU. ACLU spokesperson Forrest Bailey indicated that the organization would file a new application.
The ACLU finally won the right to speak in the NYC schools on November 27, 1928.
Read About the ACLU in the 1920s: Samuel Walker, In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (1990)
Read the ACLU FBI File (not the complete file): http://vault.fbi.gov/ACLU
Learn about the ACLU today: www.aclu.org