As you may know, Feminist Doodles donates a portion of our monthly sales to the American Civil Liberties Union (the ACLU, also one of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's favorite organizations!).  What exactly is the ACLU?  What do they do?  And why are they important?

The ACLU was founded in 1920, and since then it has had the same mission: to protect the rights of all Americans as given to them by the United States Constitution. Regardless of what the issue may be, the ACLU stands to protect people’s rights to free speech; to make their own decisions about having children; to be treated equally regardless of sex, gender, race, or sexual orientation; and more. 

This organization has always worked to protect those who are usually ignored or excluded from protection in the law. In their first year, they helped fight the harassment and deportation of immigrants, who would often conflict with authority figures due to their activism. 

In 1939, it was the ACLU that won the right for workers to unionize, through the Supreme Court. They were one of the very few groups that stood up in the ‘40s to protest the capture and detainment of Japanese Americans in internment camps. 

In 1954, the ACLU joined the long-going battle for desegregation of schools, and helped make advances for children of color, especially Black children, to be able to go to school with other kids regardless of skin color. Later, in the ‘60s, the ACLU provided a lot of support to the civil rights movement, something that is still going on today— and that they are still supporting. 

In 1973, they were involved in the monumental Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which finally decriminalized abortion, and gave people the right to choose whether or not to have children. That issue is still up for debate, and the ACLU is still doing their best to uphold those rights. 

These are just a few of the issues the ACLU has been involved with. Abortion, gay marriage, gay rights, trans rights, liberation and equality for people of color, free speech, and governmental oppression are all issues that they tackle regularly. 

And the ACLU’s fight usually isn’t with the public— it’s with the courts. They use their resources to provide support in the legal system, where they can positively influence decisions and allow people to have their voices heard. This also allows them to uphold the rights of every American citizen. 

In short, the American Civil Liberties Union fights every day to make sure that the rights of every American, of people like you, are upheld in the courts. They fight to make everyone’s lives a bit more fair and a bit more equal. 

And that’s why we choose to support them. We believe, like they do, that the rights given to us by the Constitution are important, and that they deserve to be fought for. So we support the ACLU to help them in their mission to do just that.