American Legion Calls for Investigation of the ACLU
The American Legion at its national convention on this day called for an investigation of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The Legion’s formal resolution charged that the ACLU had opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC); had opposed national security provisions related to passport; had opposed federal national security programs (presumably the loyalty program created in 1947); opposed the loyalty oath requirement for federal National Defense Act student loans; and other activities not consistent with American Legion policy.
The American Legion was founded by World War I veterans on November 10, 1919. From the 1920s through the early 1960s it was one of the most active anti-communist and anti-civil liberties groups in the country. The ACLU was founded just two months later on January 19, 1920.
Learn more about the history of the ACLU: Samuel Walker, In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (1990)
Read about the history of the American Legion: William Pencak, For God and Country: The American Legion, 1919–1941 (1989)
Visit the web site of today’s ACLU
Read about the history of the intolerant attitudes of the American Legion here
Visit the web site of today’s American Legion