ACLU Turns to Rutgers to Document Its Challenge in a Post 9/11 Era
Rutgers Oral History Archives will publish ACLU histories in the fall
The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged many aspects of the Patriot Act adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has turned to the Rutgers Oral History Archives to document how decisions were made during a transformative time in history.
Lorraine Kenny, associate director for communications and marketing for the ACLU, said 9/11 marked a shift in the fight to protect civil liberties.
“We wanted to document decisions about this historical moment in the country,’’ Kenny said. “How do you maintain our liberties while assuring our national security?”
After the Patriot Act was adopted, the ACLU filed legal challenges to many of its provisions, claiming they violated the rights to privacy, speech, due process of law, and the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
The ACLU has given ROHA a $40,000 grant to record the oral histories of its leaders around the country. ROHA interviewers have started working on the project locally while Molly Graham, the assistant director, is spending June on the West Coast, interviewing ACLU officials from San Diego to Seattle.
“I’m really impressed by these people,” Graham says. “They’ve done some really important work. I see them as soldiers in business suits, because their work has been important in securing our rights and freedoms.’’
The post-9/11 era was one that forced the ACLU to make tough decisions, not only about which cases to take on, but about the very structure of the organization. In 2001, Kenny says, some affiliates had no full-time lawyers, relying instead on local attorneys who worked case-by-case. The resources of the national organization were also stretched thin. Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s director who started in the position just days before the attacks, set up a special department to coordinate support for affiliates, and raised money to hire a full-time staff lawyer in each state. The organization’s membership has also grown considerably since 2001, from 300,000 to more than 500,000. The oral histories will be published as the organization approaches its centennial in 2020.
“I was definitely interested in going to a university like Rutgers, rather than to oral historians who work at large, because of the resources that you could put behind us,” she says.
Begun in 1994 as a project of the Class of 1942 focusing on World War II veterans, ROHA has expanded its efforts to include the oral histories of more than 1,500 people – veterans, civilians, people with an association with Rutgers. Seven hundred seventy-seven of these oral histories are accessible online.
There is an art to taking an oral history, and it involves asking a few open-ended questions – such as how 9/11 affected a local affiliate -- and giving the subject as much room as necessary to answer, Graham says.
“There are some questions we may repeat in every interview, but each interview is tailored to each person, depending on their experience, position and the course of the conversation,” Graham says.
Graham, who recorded oral histories for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and in her home state of Maine before coming to Rutgers, is passionate about preserving the memories and voices of the people involved in making history. Besides recording and publishing oral histories, she goes into New Jersey high schools to help students record oral histories. “In the age of Facebook and Twitter, we’re losing the habit of empathy that comes with face-to-face interactions,” she says. “My mantra has always been, make the quiet voices loud.”
Media contact: Ken Branson, 848-932-0580; cell 908-797-2590; kbranson@ucm.rutgers.edu