Our 50th Anniversary Dinner Celebration was a great success! Nearly 200 people attended, and enjoyed reconnecting with old friends, reminiscing about the ACLU's storied history, and eating a delicious dinner.
As the guests were finishing up their chocolate mousse cake, RI ACLU Board Chair Jennifer Azevedo gave the annual review, and then introduced the short documentary film "The Rhode Island ACLU: 50 Years of Eternal Vigilance." Filmmakers Diane Dolphin and Sally Kingsbury had gathered memories from RI ACLU cooperating attorneys, past plaintiffs and allies to tell the story of six landmark Affiliate cases and issues, from the defense of an anti-war protester in 1969 to the passage of precedent-setting anti-racial profiling legislation in 2000.
Lise Iwon then introduced the recipients of the RI ACLU's annual "Raymond J. Pettine Civil Libertarian of the Year" award. In celebration of our 50th Anniversary and five decades of legal victories, we bestowed this honor on our entire corps of cooperating attorneys. Ten ACLU volunteer attorneys – two from each decade who had previously received ACLU awards – represented all of our cooperating lawyers in accepting the award.
The Honorees:
- 1959-1969 Milton Stanzler & Richard Zacks
- 1969-1979 Stephen Fortunato, Jr. & Amato DeLuca
- 1979-1989 Lynette Labinger & Amy Tabor
- 1989-1999 John Dineen & Sandra Lanni
- 1999-2009 Howard Merten & Thomas Lyons
Susan Herman, president of the national ACLU, gave the keynote speech on "Civil Liberties in the Age of Obama." She told of the ACLU's hard work and successes in fighting Illegal government spying, indefinite detention without charge or trial and government-sponsored torture programs after 9/11, and the need for continued vigilance even with the change in administration. ACLU Affiliates need to be a barricade against states' attempts to curtail civil liberties, she told the audience, and praised the Rhode Island Affiliate's amazing accomplishments in doing just that.
The dinner was a fabulous way to celebrate the last 50 years of the Affiliate and kick off the next 50.
