Our Movement, Our Moment
At the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn before a sold-out crowd that included Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell as well as numerous state legislators, the ACLU of Michigan Board of Directors President Dan Varner welcomed supporters to this year's annual dinner, titled "Our Movement, Our Moment."
"It's been another incredible year as we take on some of the biggest challenges facing our state and nation," Varner said. "But thanks to the commitment of everyone in this room and supporters throughout the state, together we're making strides to ensure that the civil rights and the civil liberties of all are protected."
New Executive Director Dave Noble knows that commitment well. He shared the experience of being on a plane returning from Florida in December of 2000, following the Supreme Court ruling that called off the recount of the presidential election. For that, Noble had, among other things, been trained to inspect those now-famous hanging chads. Surveying the rows of passengers, some quick math led him to realize the equivalent of just two more plane-loads of voters would have made the difference in the outcome of the election — "even with everything wrong with the system," Noble said.
Considering what a different course our country might have taken with an alternative outcome of the election, Noble declared, "I've been pissed off about voter suppression ever since." To follow that up, Noble spoke next of last year's passage of Proposal 3, the greatest expansion of voting rights in Michigan.
"With your help, we made one of the worst voting systems in the country one of the best," he said.
He went on to speak with pride about the ACLU's national efforts.
"Back in 2016, we put [Trump] on notice," he said. "That if elected, we would see him in court based on his promises to violate the Constitution. Guess what? We have sued his administration more than 200 times, with extraordinary success," he said, to a round of applause.
Perhaps most poignantly, Noble spoke of Aimee Stephens, who was in the room that evening. Despite previous court rulings to the contrary, "the Trump Administration argued that it should be legal to fire Aimee and other transgender people and gay people like me," Noble said. "No matter what the court decides, her case, her courage, has changed this nation."
Following his description of the ACLU's efforts to fight back against child separation, ballot initiatives to deny access to abortion and what he characterized as our racist criminal justice system, Noble made the following pledge:
"My commitment to you, is that we will stay vigilant and we will stay bold. We will stay in this light. With those in power trying to take rights away, the ACLU of Michigan will be there. With you by our side, we'll keep fighting, and we'll keep winning. We are up to the challenge."
2019 Honorees
A lifelong advocate for, and supporter of, abortion rights, Vicki Moore was the evening's first honoree. Her clinics in mid-Michigan, the Women's Health Centers, are the only ones between Saginaw and Traverse City that provide abortion care. The inspiration behind opening the clinics was the work of her parents in the years before abortion was legal. However, by 2011, new restrictive laws were being enacted that were designed to shut her down.
"With the ACLU's unwavering dedication, incredible legal prowess and belief in me, we were able to team up and prevail," Moore said.
The other honoree of the evening was Lamonte Card, who was released from 25 years in prison after being sentenced when he was a juvenile to life without the possibility of parole. Grateful for the efforts of the ACLU on his behalf, Card wished to be involved with the organization in whatever capacity he could. Just five days following his release, Card joined the ACLU to fight for voting reform as part of the Promote the Vote campaign, or Proposal 3. And as someone who had lacked the right to vote for so many years, Card had a unique ability and passion to change hearts and minds.
"I didn't have a job. I didn't have anything. All I had was a desire to make a difference and contribute to society," Card said.
Later, speaking of his experience working with the ACLU, he said, "It enhanced my life." As he stood before the crowd that evening he was emotional, stating more than once that it was like a dream to be there after his decades in prison.
Act. Challenge. Love. Unite.
Keynote speaker the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II exhorted the crowd to act, challenge, love and unite throughout his remarks. Barber leads the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, that is described as uniting people across the country to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation's distorted morality.
Two things that bother him the most, Barber said, are people who say, "We've never seen anything like this before," and, "This is the era of Donald Trump." Thus, Barber provided a history lesson.
He described how 100 years ago racial riots were breaking out against blacks due to post-World War II tensions. With America in an economic slump, there was increased competition for jobs because the leaders of industry were greedy, and preferred to make their goods cheaply instead of expanding the workforce. It was also a time of unrest among immigrants. Government leaders sowed fear that returning soldiers were bringing back socialism and communism from overseas. Civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson coined the term Red Summer to describe the widespread white supremacist attacks that plagued the U.S. in 1919.
"And then America elected a racist," Barber said. "He was a racist. He was a narcissist." Without mentioning President Woodrow Wilson by name, Barber quoted him as saying, "The American Negro returning from abroad would be our greatest medium in conveying Bolshevism to America."
"In other words," Barber said, "fear the returning American soldier, because they are the conduit of socialism and communism."
Barber went on to talk about how, 100 years later, this country is faced with racist voter suppression laws that predate the current president's election. Echoing what others have put forth, Barber stated, "Trump is not the problem. He is the symptom."
"A hundred years later … we need to do the ACLU," Barber said. "We need to act. We need to challenge. We need to love. And we need to unite. We need to put down our petty differences between organizations and understand that there are forces out there trying to hurt us all."
The same politicians that support voter suppression are the same ones denying health care, said Barber. And they are the same ones opposing a living wage, harming the LGBTQ community, refusing to take measures against climate change, supporting mass incarceration and so on.
"And if they are cynical enough to be together, we ought to be smart enough to come together," Barber said. "It's time to do the ACLU."
