Before I came to work for the ACLU of Indiana (just a few short weeks ago), I was at least a little familiar with the organization.
I didn’t fully distinguish between national and state affiliates, but as a journalist for nearly a decade, I had my fair share of interactions with communications professionals here. Now, I find myself on the other side of the keyboard, and I am seeing just how much the ACLU of Indiana does — and has done — in the fight to protect and preserve Hoosiers’ civil liberties.
I was recently hired to join the team as a communications specialist, helping shape and share our message and mission to Indiana residents and beyond. One of my early assignments had me digging through a box filled to the brim with old news clippings, documents, and newsletters highlighting the organization’s 73-year-history.
I was already proud to be here, given the work my new colleagues across various departments engage in on a daily basis. However, I guess I didn’t quite realize the legacy I was stepping into.
That pride swelled as I realized…this is truly no ordinary 9 to 5.
The ACLU of Indiana, then known as the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU), was founded back in 1953. Our nation has changed drastically in the intervening years, but this organization has been engaged in many of the same fights for most of its existence: women’s rights and reproductive freedom, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights and dignity, censorship, incarceration conditions, religious liberty and more.
Women’s Economic Justice and Reproductive Freedom
In my archival research, I found numerous articles discussing systemic challenges faced by women, from pay equity to reproductive rights.
An article from 1985 highlights an ICLU workshop at the Women and the Legislative Process Conference. The workshops discussed “skills and explored legislative initiatives concerning domestic violence, the uniform marital property act, displaced homemakers, women’s health issues, child care, teen pregnancy, women, children and the Indiana welfare system, and pay equity.”
Another clipping from 1989 shows various individuals affiliated with the ICLU posing with the Award for Reproductive Freedom they’d received. Numerous other clippings highlighted the ever-shifting legal landscape for reproductive rights, including one from 1988 which notes that ICLU attorneys spent more than 400 hours fighting in cases that ultimately “resulted in the vindication of a woman’s right to an abortion.”
The fight for women’s rights and reproductive freedom continues, particularly in this post-Roe era. The ACLU of Indiana is still engaged in this fight, securing recent victories in our religious freedom challenge to the abortion ban as well as blocking a law that would censor Planned Parenthood’s abortion-related speech.
LGBTQ+ Rights
I found numerous articles and instances of the ICLU/ACLU of Indiana working to ensure the protection and dignity of Hoosiers in the LGBTQ+ community. I found an article from 1984 in which the ICLU established a task force after learning of an “anti-gay campaign” by the Indianapolis Police Department on Monument Circle.
Just a few years later, in 1990, the ICLU had a booth at the first public Lesbian and Gay Pride Day at the same location. The event was attended by around 1,500-2,000 people.
It would be 24 more years (unbelievable!) before same-sex marriage became an established right in Indiana. And, wouldn’t you know, the ACLU of Indiana had a hand in that as well.
The ACLU of Indiana continues to stand with our LGBTQ+ neighbors, fighting to ensure they don’t see these hard-fought victories stripped away or eroded.
Incarceration Conditions
I discovered a 1985 article in which the ICLU Jail Conditions Task Force was engaged in monitoring jail conditions throughout the state and ensuring inmates understand their constitutional rights.
This seemed particularly relevant given our ongoing litigation against the Miami Correctional Facility and the Monroe County Jail.
The List Goes On
Tucked inside that box of documents were many more stories in the fight to ensure our leaders and systems live up to the expectations of the Constitution.
From holding banned book readings to defending Vietnam War protesters, fighting against the stigma associated with HIV/AIDs, standing against random drug testing, and even blocking the state from placing a moment of the Ten Commandments on the Statehouse lawn (something rearing its ugly head once again), the ACLU of Indiana has frequently found itself on the right side of history.
As I went through these old, yellowed-with-age documents and saw the echoes of challenges we continue to face, it made me think about — of all things — a quote from Jon Stewart that has always stuck with me.
The arc of the moral history is long, and it bends towards justice, right? But it doesn’t bend by itself. It’s not fucking gravity. People have to bend it. You have to bend it, and there’s going to be other people trying to bend it the other fucking way.”
In some ways, it can be frustrating and defeating to see the same arguments playing on repeat through history. We’ve all seen the photos of the elderly protesters carrying the signs, “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit.”
However, I do find hope in knowing that both then and now there are people willing to fight the good fight, people like my colleagues here at the ACLU, who are fighting in the actual courts as well as in the court of public opinion. And we're not going away any time soon.
There’s a lot more work ahead, and I am proud to add my voice to the ACLU of Indiana’s storied legacy.
Here’s to another 73 years.
Seven Decades of Civil Rights Defense
Here are some articles and photographs from major events across the last 73 years of the ACLU of Indiana.