Topics
News and Events
Date April 26, 2019
Media Contact
Jill Kimball
[email protected]
401-863-5450
All News

In a talk at Brown, ACLU leader urges student activists to keep fighting for equality

"This is the time to be a protagonist and not a spectator," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, in a talk on College Hill.

Anthony Romero
1 of 4

In his talk, Romero likened the work of the ACLU to that of student activists at Brown and other universities. “We at the ACLU are like the activists on campus: We hold America's feet to the fire; that is our job,” he said. “We say, ‘Okay, you believe in liberty and justice for all? Let's see you prove it and let's hold you to it.’” Photo: Mike Cohea

Brown University Provost Richard Locke
2 of 4

As University Provost Richard Locke introduced Romero, he gave an overview of the many important legal cases in which the ACLU has played an instrumental role through the years, from Brown v. Board of Education to Roe v. Wade. Today, he said, the organization is “squarely in the middle of challenges that many of you have been working on on campus — challenges, for example, to the travel ban, imposed by the Trump administration, and to family separation policies we've witnessed on the U.S.-Mexico border.” Photo: Mike Cohea

Richard Locke and Anthony Romero
3 of 4

Romero urged the audience not to pin today’s most pressing threats to civil liberty on one person and to think beyond 2020 in their activism. “I want you not to fool yourself for even a second that the challenges we confront today are not challenges unique to the Trump era,” he said. “Even after he leaves the Oval Office, there will be a whole movement of people, of leaders, who will pick up where he left off to push a nativistic, xenophobic, anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, racist agenda, and we have to be ready for the onslaught, even after he's gone.” Photo: Mike Cohea

Anthony Romero with a Brown student
4 of 4

Romero said the ACLU owes much of its recent success to its growing, highly engaged membership. The number of ACLU members has grown from 400,000 in 2016 to more than 1.8 million today, and that membership is younger and more diverse than ever. Photo: Mike Cohea

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, assured an audience of Brown University students and community members that even in today’s divided landscape, there are still battles “worth fighting.”

“It's hard not to be incredibly upset and disturbed when you wake up in the morning and see ...such rage and resentment and racism,” Romero said. “But when you have those moments, you've got to remind yourselves that we don't live in Donald Trump's America, we live in our America, guided by core values most good hearted people will resonate with.”

In a talk and Q&A with University Provost Richard Locke, Romero touted some of the ACLU’s recent accomplishments, from helping DREAMers hold onto their work authorizations to pursuing criminal justice reform at the local and federal levels. Key to the organization’s success, he said, is its mix of “defensive” moves, such as filing lawsuits and fighting to retain rights, and “offensive” efforts, such as driving younger, more diverse voters to the polls.

Romero’s visit was part of Reaffirming University Values, a series of events spearheaded by the Office of the Provost. The series, now in its third year, hosts scholars and leaders who engage with the Brown community in thoughtful, informed discussion about society’s most pressing issues. Previous events have touched on the opioid crisis, free speech on campus and political division in the United States.