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Finding Aid for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California records, ca. 1935-
900
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Title: American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California records
Date (inclusive): ca. 1935-
Collection number: 900
Creator:
American Civil Liberties Union of Southern Califoria.
Extent:
1522 boxes (736 linear ft.)
3 oversize boxes.
Abstract: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), established in 1920, originally began as the American Union Against Militarism
in 1915, later becoming the National Civil Liberties Bureau in 1917. The ACLU of Southern California was established in Los
Angeles in 1924. Collection consists of legal, educational, and organizational files of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Southern California. Includes minutes, correspondence, memoranda, clippings, case files, and briefs. Topics covered in
case files include the right to counsel, women's rights, Japanese-American relocation during WWII, blacklisting in the film
industry, and Crawford vs. LA Unified School District. Also contains materials related to the local and national organizations
of the ACLU.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- Gift of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, 1967-
- Gift of Eason Monroe, 1966-69.
[Identification of item], American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California records (Collection Number 900). UCLA Library
Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), established in 1920, originally began as the American Union Against Militarism
in 1915, later becoming the National Civil Liberties Bureau in 1917. The ACLU of Southern California was established in Los
Angeles in 1924.
Collection consists of legal, educational, and organizational files of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
Includes minutes, correspondence, memoranda, clippings, case files, and briefs. Topics covered in case files include the right
to counsel, women's rights, Japanese-American relocation during WWII, blacklisting in the film industry, and Crawford vs.
LA Unified School District. Also contains materials related to the local and national organizations of the ACLU.
The major civil liberties issues of the twentieth century are reflected in the archive of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Southern California. Its dedication to the defense of the Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, has led to involvement
with extremely unpopular causes and persons to protect them, and all other citizens, from arbitrary abridgements of their
constitutional rights. The archive charts the often unpredictable course of events defending civil liberties, the sudden rise
and demise of issues, or the prolonged litigation through many courts, and the effects of court decisions. Many of the files
in the archive show the intricate relationships between the local, state, and national organizations of the ACLU.
The earliest materials included in the archive dates back to the mid-1930s, and holds all the inactive files through 1964.
Although the Union was established in Los Angeles in 1924, it has not been possible to locate files covering the years from
1924 to approximately 1935.
The original arrangement of the archive by the ACLU has been maintained in cataloging this collection. Boxes 1-43 include
files relating to efforts made by the ACLU of Southern California in and out of the courts. These are organized under general
headings (e.g., censorship and boycott, free speech, academic freedom, etc.), and are subdivided into specific numbered headings
for each file. Boxes 44-49 contain the literature of liberal groups which have been of interest to the efforts of the ACLU.
Boxes 50 and 51 hold the literature of the right wing. Organizational records, correspondence, and documents of the national,
states, and local ACLU can be found in boxes 52-59. Boxes 60 through 112 contain materials which were awaiting interfiling
into the previous categories, and are now separately filed.
Since no logical alphabetical, chronological, or subject order was established for the archive, the recommended approach is
through both the Description of the archive listing the contents of each document box, and the Index. The contents of boxes
98-108 have not been indexed.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California--Archives.
American Civil Liberties Union.
Civil rights--California, Southern--Archival resources.
Case files.
Organization files.
Safeguarding civil liberties [oral history transcript] / Eason Monroe, interviewee. UCLA Oral History Department interview,
1972. Available at Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
American Civil Liberties Union Archives (MC #001) Available at Princeton University Library.
The National ACLU Archives, 1917-1946 (approximately) are available on microfilm through Interlibrary Loan from University
of Wisconsin Library.
For an index to the archives see:
- Baskin, Alex
- American Civil Liberties Papers, a guide to the records of the ACLU, 1912-1946.