Judy Kutulas.The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930–1960.:The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930–1960

Abstract

Histories of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provide more fodder for the common observation that the ugliest building at most universities invariably houses the Architecture Department. The organization best known for championing commitments to democratic freedoms in the United States has had a long history of undemocratic internal organization. Roger Baldwin, the long time president of the ACLU, treated the group as a personal fiefdom, following his whims regardless of whether they were sanctioned by the Board of Directors or the membership. Prominent directors believed Americans ought to be governed democratically, but not ACLU affiliates. “The more liberal ACLU leaders became,” Judy Kutulas's study of ACLU politics during the Depression, World War II, and the McCarthy era details, “the less they trusted the membership” (p. 11). In her view, “[t]he idea of organizational democracy was a hard concept for many [ACLU] officers, whose mission was protecting dissenters against the tyranny of the majority” (p. 190).