- Roger Nash Baldwin
Roger Nash Baldwin (
January 21 1884 –August 26 1981 ) was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950. Many of the ACLU's original landmark cases took place under his direction, including theScopes Monkey Trial , theSacco and Vanzetti murder trial, and its challenge to the ban onJames Joyce 's "Ulysses". [ SeeCrystal Eastman , anACLU co-founder, as well as her brotherMax Eastman (and, particularly, his criticism ofJames Joyce ).] Baldwin was a well knownpacifist and author.Biography
Roger Nash Baldwin was born in
Wellesley, Massachusetts to Frank Fenno Baldwin and Lucy Cushing Nash. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees atHarvard University ; afterwards, he moved to St. Louis on the advice ofLouis D. Brandeis . There he taught sociology atWashington University , worked as asocial worker and became chiefprobation officer of theSt. Louis Juvenile Court . He also co-wrote "Juvenile Courts and Probation" withBernard Flexner at this time; this book became very influential in its era, and was, in part, the foundation of Baldwin's national reputation.Baldwin was a lifelong
pacifist ; he was a member of theAmerican Union Against Militarism (AUAM), which opposed American involvement inWorld War I , and spent a year in jail as aconscientious objector rather than submit to the draft. After the passage of theSelective Service Act of 1917 , Baldwin called for the AUAM to create a legal division to protect the rights of conscientious objectors. OnJuly 1 ,1917 , the AUAM responded by creating theCivil Liberties Bureau (CLB), headed by Baldwin. The CLB separated from the AUAM on October 1st, 1917, renaming itself theNational Civil Liberties Bureau , with Baldwin as director. In 1920, NCLB was renamed the American Civil Liberties Union with Baldwin continuing as the ACLU's first executive director. [http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/aclu1920/]As director, Baldwin was integral to the shape of the association's early character; it was under Baldwin's leadership that the ACLU undertook some of its most famous cases, including the
Scopes Monkey Trial , theSacco and Vanzetti murder trial, and its challenge to the ban onJames Joyce 's "Ulysses". Baldwin retired from the ACLU leadership in 1950. He remained active in politics for the rest of his life; for example, he co-founded the International League for the Rights of Man, which is now known as theInternational League for Human Rights .In St. Louis, Baldwin had been greatly influenced by the radical social movement of the anarchist
Emma Goldman . He joined theIndustrial Workers of the World . In 1927, he had visited the Soviet Union and wrote a book, "Liberty Under the Soviets". He later denouncedcommunism in his book, "A New Slavery", which condemned "the inhuman communist police state tyranny" [http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/baldwin.html] . In the 1940s, Baldwin led the campaign to purge the ACLU of Communist Party members [http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/baldwin.html] .In 1947, General
Douglas MacArthur invited him toJapan to foster the growth of civil liberties in that country. In Japan, he founded theJapan Civil Liberties Union , and the Japanese government awarded him theOrder of the Rising Sun . In 1948, Germany and Austria invited him for similar purposes.President
Jimmy Carter awarded Baldwin theMedal of Freedom on16 January 1981 .Baldwin died of
heart failure on August 26, 1981 at Valley Hospital inRidgewood, New Jersey . [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B10F6395F0C748EDDA10894D9484D81&scp=1&sq=%22roger+baldwin%22&st=nyt|NY Times Obituary August 27, 1981.]Notes
References
*"
The New York Times ", Thursday,October 31 ,1918 . Pacifist Professor Gets Year In Prison; Roger N. Baldwin Refused To Submit To Examination Under Draft Law. Nearing With Him In Court Shakes Baldwin's Hand After Sentence. Professor Asserts He Loves American Ideals. Roger N. Baldwin, former Director of the National Civil Liberties Bureau and an official of the American Union Against Militarism, was sentenced yesterday to serve one year in the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta for violating the selective draft law through refusal to submit to physical examination.External links
* [http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/lamson.html Roger Baldwin: Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union: A Portrait] by Peggy Lamson [ISBN 0395247616, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976] p. 192
* [http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/blog/baldwin.pdf "Freedom in the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.] (PDF) by Roger Nash Baldwin, in "Soviet Russia Today ", 1934.
* [http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/ws859f657 Roger Nash Baldwin papers] in theSeeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
* [http://harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/baldwin.html Roger Nash Baldwin, Unitarian] Bio of Roger Nash Baldwin byRobert C. Cottrell
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