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Welcome to DDF's Civil Liberties Hall of Fame

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We protect and advance the right of dissent in the United States; We translate grassroots civil liberties concerns into national policy debate and action; We alert grassroots activists to civil liberties threats; We educate the public, the press and policymakers as to how dissent is crucial to democracy.

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People

Featured Profiles

Chuck McDew                         Photo Credit: © Bud Shultz From We Will Be Heard

"The theory was, if we hadn't been there, they wouldn't be beating us." 1961 The youths who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) withstood terror from officials and Klansman alike in their work to change the political face of the South. Into Albany, Georgia; Philadelphia, Mississippi; and Selma, Alabama, they went: marching, registering voters, and risking their lives. Chuck McDew was the second national chairman of SNCC. He was beaten, jailed, and charged with criminal anarchy for encouraging black citizens to vote. Read more about Chuck McDew

Louise Thompson Patterson        Photo Credit: © Bud Shultz From We Will Be Heard

“Here I was in prison for the crime of attending a meeting” 1934 In the Birmingham of the 1930s, demonstrations for relief from the depression were as intolerable to the authorities as were those for relief from segregation in the Birmingham of the 1960s. Police beat up speakers at meetings, attacked crowds, and raided the homes of suspected leaders. And the Birmingham city commissioners unanimously approved a strict criminal anarchy ordinance to “curb communism.” Venturing into Alabama from New York City, Louise Thomson Patterson tried to organize chapters of the left-wing International Workers Order (WTO) among the black workers in the South. Read more about Louise Thompson Patterson

| Pete Seeger        Photo Credit: © Bud Shultz From We Will Be Heard

"I've got a right to sing these songs" Pete Seeger's songs have inspired protest: with Woody Guthrie in a union hall ringed by company thugs, on the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, and before 750,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters packed into Central Park. Because he sang for these and other causes, Seeger was investigated for sedition, harassed by the FBI and blacklisted by the media. In 1955, he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Read more about Pete Seeger

Frank Wilkinson

"I outlived those bastards after all." For over five decades, Frank Wilkinson crisscrossed the United States speaking to audiences ranging from grammar schools to Rotary Clubs to college classrooms. As he did so, the FBI spied on Wilkinson and sought to disrupt his organizing and have his speeches cancelled. Wilkinson sued, forcing the FBI to disgorge 132,000 pages of files on his activities. (The story is told in First Amendment Felon by Robert Sherrill.) Musician Ry Cooder, who penned a song about Frank Wilkinson, attended the memorial event after Wilkinson died. Cooder told board members of the Defending Dissent Foundation that he was especially delighted that during an interview while writing the song Wilkinson gleefully had told Cooder: "I outlived those bastards after all." That became a line in the song. Read more about Frank Wilkinson

Organizations

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights (CCDBR)
Defending Dissent Foundation (DDF)
National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (NECLC) {closed}
National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
People's Law Office

Terminology

McCarthy Period
Red-baiting
Repression
Surveillance Abuse
Witch Hunt

Events to Remember

Ratifying the Bill of Rights

We are under construction - please be patient. Thanks

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Our Statement of Principles for inclusion on this website is being developed

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Nominations Being Considered

Click here to view the current list

Civil Liberties Hall of Shame

People

Joe McCarthy
A. Mitchell Palmer
David Horowitz

Organizations & Agencies

Dies Committee
Federal Bureau of Investigation
House Committee on Un-American Activities

Incidents & Projects

COINTELPRO
Palmer Raids

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