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Our 2007 Awards Dinner is Wednesday,
March 28th, at the Omni Shoreham
Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street,
NW, Washington, DC (under two
blocks from the Woodley Park/Zoo
exit on the Red Line). Reception
starts at 6:30pm, followed by
Dinner at 7:30. The evening
ends no later than 9:30pm.
Julian Bond, world-renowned
civil rights leader and Chairman
of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), and former first
president of the Southern Poverty
Law Center, will receive the
2007 Henry W. Edgerton Award
for his distinguished career
at the forefront of the civil
rights movement.
Julian Bond helped form the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) and went on
to a long career in public service,
including election to the Georgia
Legislature and chairmanship
of the NAACP. Mr. Bond, who
has remained in the forefront
of social change, is also featured
in the new ACLU documentary,
"Tracked in America," where
he relates his experiences of
surveillance during the civil
rights movement to our current
post 9/11 world.
Our featured
speaker at the Dinner will be
Senator Benjamin Louis
"Ben" Cardin, former
Congressman and newly elected
junior Senator to the U.S. Congress
from Maryland. A true civil
libertarian at heart, Cardin
believes in safety for Americans
but not at the expense of our
civil liberties. He has voted
against continuing intelligence
gathering without civilian oversight.
Benjamin Cardin voted against
the REAL ID Act of 2005 that
would federalize driver’s licenses
to “hinder terrorists.”
He sponsored a 2001 Constitutional
Amendment for equal rights by
sex. Ben Cardin voted against
DC attempts to ban gay adoptions,
against a Constitutional Amendment
attempting to ban gay marriage,
and in favor of added protections
for long-term partners through
civil unions.
He has voted against forced
recital of the pledge of allegiance
in public institutions, including
schools as well as against prohibitions
on “flag desecration.”
We will also
honor volunteer
attorneys from the law
firm of Covington & Burling,
who contributed their services
in the settlement of an important
ACLU-NCA case, involving seven
clients whose rights were violated
during an protest in connection
with a meeting of the World
Bank and International Monetary
Fund on September 27, 2002,
in Pershing Park. These volunteer
attorneys will receive our
Adrienne and Alan Barth Award
for Outstanding
Service to the ACLU of the
National Capital Area.
Funds
raised at this Bill of Rights
Awards Dinner are used for the
legal and public education work
of the ACLU Fund of the National
Capital Area, with a portion to
the national ACLU Foundation for
similar work nationwide. ACLU
legal staff has, for example:
• Won changes in police
practices
• Defended rights of residents,
businesses and neighborhood associations
to contact D.C. Government agencies
without fear of lawsuit.
• Protected D.C. Firefighters'
religious rights.
• Exposed FBI and local
police spying on political and
religious groups, such as the
Quakers and Catholic Peace Ministries.
• Won release of documents
detailing abuse at Guantanamo
Bay, Abu Ghraib Prison, elsewhere
in Iraq, Afghanistan and worldwide.
• Fought for fair elections
and voting rights nationwide,
including re-votes not merely
recounts when voters were wrongly
excluded or obviously confused
(e.g., West Palm Beach).
• Provided thousands of
What to Do If You're Stopped by
the Policecards in Spanish and
English (even the police distribute
them).
For
more information on past Dinners
and their luminous award recipients
and speakers, click
here.
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