The Papers of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia [a]

Collection Summary

Creator:	ACLU of Virginia
Title:	The Papers of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia [a]
Accession:	MSS 85-2a
Parent Collection:	Records of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia
Location:	This collection is stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections before your visit to ensure your papers are available.
Photograph Collection:	View 0 digitized photographs
Digitized Content:	0 objects
Use Restrictions:	Those wishing to do research in these files should submit to the archivist a written request for access, addressed to the ACLU Access Committee, along with a description of the research project and anticipated use of the research findings.

Collection Description & Arrangement

This addition to the Papers of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia came to the University of Virginia Law Library in 1986. It was sorted and processed following the guidelines established for the first accession (Mss 85-2) of the collection.

These papers fall into three divisions, administrative/topical, case, and project files, and are arranged alphabetically within each. They cover the years 1970-1985, although the predominant dates are the late 70s. In addition to general organization correspondence, the administrative files cover topics such as abortion, Legal Services Corporation, and voting rights, among many others. Among the numerous case files are those for Crockett v. Sorenson challenging the constitutionality of religious education classes in public schools; Miles v. City of Portsmouth concerning housing discrimination; and the Taxi Zum Klo cases involving obscenity.

The projects documented in these papers concerned health care, nutrition, migrant workers, and prisons.
A relatively small percentage of these files are closed to research in order to protect lawyer/client confidentiality.

Biographical & Historical Information

The ACLU of Virginia was begun in 1967 and by early 1968 had 1700 members. In that year the National Development Council of the ACLU approved a grant proposal from the Virginia affiliate for funds to hire permanent staff. While there have been occasional financial difficulties, the Virginia affiliate has maintained a staffed office in Richmond since 1968. The executive directorship has been held consecutively by Lauren Selden, Shalom Dubow, Betsy Brinson, and Chan Kendrick.

Over the years the ACLU of Virginia has supported the rights of children, the mentally handicapped, students, women, homosexuals, and racial minorities. It has funded projects to effect improvements in the treatment and living conditions of patients in the state's mental institutions and migrant farmworkers on the Eastern Shore. It has opposed religion in public schools, illegal police searches, and the imposition of dress or hair length codes in schools or the work place. In the General Assembly the Virginia affiliate has fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, the right to abortion, reapportionment, and certain court reforms and changes in the juvenile code. The organization has been an active advocate for academic freedom and for the protection of individuals' privacy. It has pushed for reform of drug laws and called for the end of capital punishment. The most extensive and visible project for Virginia's ACLU in the 1970's and early 1980's was the prison project, a movement to insure adequate legal protection of inmates, as well as to improve their living conditions and treatment.

The papers of the ACLU of Virginia began coming to the University of Virginia in 1971. Since that time nine installments of papers have been transferred. In 1985 the collection was moved from the Manuscripts Department at Alderman Library to the Law Library. For the protection of ACLU clients' privacy, the entire collection has been closed to research since the mid-seventies. In 1988 every folder was reviewed, and those containing confidential information were removed to restricted storage for at least 25 years. The remaining files (80 boxes, 35 linear feet) are open to research with the permission of the ACLU's Access Committee (see p. 6); the folders are grouped and arranged as they were when first received at the University. The initial gift was accessioned #9690, and succeeding ones were numbered #9690-a, -b, etc. These voluminous files dating from 1967-1979 were kept by a number of different executive directors and secretaries and later processed by several different archivists. Consequently, folder headings varied over time, as has the archival arrangement.

Acquisition Information

Date Received	1986
Donor Information	These files were given to the Law Library by Chan Kendrick in 1986.

Use Policy

Access	Those wishing to do research in these files should submit to the archivist a written request for access, addressed to the ACLU Access Committee, along with a description of the research project and anticipated use of the research findings.
Use Restrictions	Those wishing to do research in these files should submit to the archivist a written request for access, addressed to the ACLU Access Committee, along with a description of the research project and anticipated use of the research findings.
Preferred Citation
	Unless otherwise stated, digital materials in our collections are available for use under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 License (CC-BY-4.0). For Use and Citation guidelines, see Special Collections Use Policy.