American Civil Liberties Union. Illinois Division. Records

Subseries 1: Administration and Finance, contains by-laws, financial and fundraising materials, and job applications. It includes correspondence, memoranda, and questionnaires related to ACLU projects and political concerns. It also contains general clippings about the ACLU. Material is organized by subject and spans 1938-1980.

Subseries 2: Committees, contains committee minutes and correspondence from the ACLU's Illinois chapter. It includes minutes and memoranda from the national branch. Material is organized by committee and then chronologically. This subseries covers 1945-1973.

Subseries 3: Correspondence, contains the Illinois chapter's correspondence with the national branch and other chapters, and with organizations and individuals. It includes the correspondence of the two attorneys, David Goldberger and Nancy Rosen. This subseries begins with the national branch and other chapters, followed by correspondence organized alphabetically; it concludes with general correspondence organized chronologically. Material spans 1945-1979.

Subseries 4: Membership, contains correspondence with individual members, member profiles, and membership solicitations, primarily for the Illinois chapter. It includes requests for ACLU literature. Material is organized by topic and spans 1947-1966.

Subseries 5: Meetings and Events, contains clippings, correspondence, and programs related to lectures, meetings, conferences, rallies, and tours hosted by the ACLU, or participated in by ACLU members. It includes audio tape reels of panel discussions at annual meetings. Material spans 1947-1968 and is organized chronologically.

Subseries 6: Newsletters and Publications, contains bulletins, clippings, newsletters and news releases, issued by the ACLU's national branch and Illinois chapter. It includes literature on education and communism. Material is organized by topic and title; it spans 1932-1975.

Subseries 7: FBI, contains correspondence, files, reports, and memoranda collected by the FBI and released to ACLU under Freedom of Information Act in 1976 and 1977. It includes information on national and local chapter activities. The bulk of this material is related to the ACLU's rumored link to communism and communist organizations. Folder headings indicate investigative subjects and topics, but are not exhaustive. Copies are sometimes poor and names and information often blacked out. Material is organized chronologically and spans 1920-1980.

Subseries 1: 1968 Democratic National Convention contains clippings, photographs, trial transcripts, and witness statements related to arrests and protests during the Convention. The Democratic Party's Presidential Nominating Convention was held in Chicago August 26-29, 1968. The city had already witnessed much rioting following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy earlier in the year, and the convention was marked by clashes between protestors, the Chicago Police Department, and the Illinois National Guard. There were incidents of police misconduct and a raid on potential nominee Eugene McCarthy's headquarters at the Hilton Hotel. Material is organized by topic and subject, and covers 1967-1970. Witness statements are arranged by incident numbers, as originally categorized by the ACLU; detail has been provided wherever possible. This subseries includes the papers on David T. Dellinger trials: U.S.A. v. David T. Dellinger, among other cases defended by ACLU. Oversized material can be found at the end of this subseries. The material spans from 1968 to 1972.

Subseries 2: Politics, Legislation, and Voting Rights, contains cases, clippings, correspondence, and memoranda related to legislation, lobbying, elections, and voting. It includes House and Senate bills, both state and national, of interest to the ACLU. It also contains correspondence, minutes, and proposals from the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1970. It includes the case: Robert Briscoe v. Stanley Kusper related to the barring of candidates for the 1967 Chicago aldermanic election. Material is organized by topic and spans 1949-1974.

Subseries 3: Women's Issues, contains case files, clippings, correspondence, and publications related to women's rights. These include such issues as abortion and birth control, discrimination and employment, and women in the justice system. Material is divided in two parts. The first part contains all material related to abortion. It contains the case Zbaraz v. Quern, relating to the Illinois statute P.A. 80-1901, which prohibited public assistance funding of all abortions except those medically necessary for the preservation of the life of the pregnant woman. The second part is organized by topic. The material spans 1940 through 1977.

Subseries 4: Freedom of Speech and Association, contains case files, newspaper clippings, correspondence and publications related to academic freedom, freedom of communications, censorship of public media, freedom of assembly and association, loyalty issues and freedom of speech. The Subseries includes files on the Broyles Commission, created by State Senator Paul Broyles to target the perceived spread of communism in Illinois, particularly in among university students and faculty, and on Smith vs. Collin, the ACLU's defense of neo-Nazi Frank Collin's proposal to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie. It also documents the internal debate raised by these cases, and the diversity of outcomes expected by the members of the board. Files on cases in defense of the Communist Party of Illinois are also extensive. Other significant cases include CPI v. Ogilvie and CPI v. State Board of Elections, Illinois v. Sterling, and Impeach Nixon Committee v. Buck. Also of note in this series are the case files regarding attempts to censor films such as "The French Line", "The Respectful Prostitute", "Don Juan", "Game of Love" and "Tropic of Cancer," as well as literature and other entertainment media.

Subseries 5: Religion, contains case files, newspaper clippings, photographs, and correspondence related to religious discrimination and the separation of Church and State, including religious symbolism in public areas religious practice in public schools.

Subseries 6: Education, contains case files, photographs, audio recordings, newspaper clippings and press relases concerning student rights, juvenile rights, and the right to education. The majority of cases in this subseries deal with racial or religious discrimination, the teaching of religion in school, and problems of unequal access to education. The case Tometz v. Board of Education is of particular interest here. In 1965, the plaintiffs, seven children represented by their parents, instituted a suit claiming the Waukegan City School District had violated the 1963 Armstrong Act, and intended to prevent segregation in public schools by requiring the local boards of education to closely supervise the attendance units in schools and revise or create new units as needed.

Subseries 7: Public Health, contains case files, publications, research material, correspondence related to cases of public health. This series is particularly rich in files related to mental health issues, particularly in public hospitals and prisons. Files related to drug addiction, treatment facilities and methods (in particular the use of methadone) are abundant in the series.

Subseries 8: Civil Rights, contains case files, correspondence, research material, press relases and clippings, photographs, audio recordings, official and governmental records related to cases of the violation of civil rights, primarily, though not only, by official agencies. Many cases concerning Army Surveillance, Privacy Issues and the Military Draft are found in the earlier Folder of this series, which dates from the 1960's. The series also contains cases concerning Housing Discrimination from the same era. From denouncing the "blockbusting" techniques of opportunist real estate speculators, to the creation of the only anti-poverty housing program endorsed by the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrationst, the ACLU role in housing development in Chicago was a crucial one, and is well-documented in these files.

The series also contains all cases pertaining to Immigration, Deportation and Politcial Asylum. Of note is the case Illinois Migrant Council v. Pilliod in which the ACLU denounced discriminatory and racist practices perpetuated by the INS

Subseries 9: Law and Order contains case files, correspondence, trial transcripts, publications, and research material related to law enforcement, due process, police brutality and procedures, prisons, prisoners' rights, and capital punishment. Of particular interest is the case Confederation of Police (COP) v. James Conlisk regarding the due process rights of six police officers accused of corruption and conspiracy. The series also contains an exemplary case on police brutality: Calvin v. Conlisk. The case denounced occurrences of misconduct by Chicago policemen against civilians recurring over the course of many years, each of which involves the common element of excessive use of physical force. This series also reflects the constant work that ACLU made in the defense of prisoners rights in the jails and penitentiaries of Cook County. It includes a vast collection of correspondence between inmates and lawyers. A variety of minor cases reflect the continuous involvement of the ACLU with inmates and protecting their rights.