ACLU president will talk about 'civil rights in a divided nation' at Drury University
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Deborah Archer, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union, will speak next week at Drury University. Her topic: “Defending Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in a Divided Nation.”
The talk at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16 in Drury's Stone Chapel is free and open to the public.
Archer's appearance on campus is part of Drury's 150th anniversary celebration. It was sponsored by the university and the Meador Center for Politics and Citizenship.
The eighth president of the ACLU, Archer is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. Her family moved to the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut, when she was 9 years old.
According to a news release, they soon realized they weren’t welcome — even waking up to “KKK” spray-painted on their home and car. She was terrified until her parents encouraged her to fight back. She took their advice to heart.
Archer’s commitment to civil rights and civil liberties grew from her family’s personal experience confronting racism, classism and anti-immigrant sentiment.
The first person of color to lead the ACLU, Archer is a leading civil rights and civil liberties advocate, civil rights lawyer, professor, writer and commentator.
In addition to the ACLU role, Archer is professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law and faculty director of the Law School’s Center on Race, Inequality and the Law.
Previously, she was an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU, where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination and school desegregation.
More: Drury's role as 'place of healing' after Civil War has shaped its 150-year history
On two separate occasions, she chaired the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency.
Archer regularly appears in print and on television to comment on critical political and policy issues. She is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Charles G. Albom Prize.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: ACLU president to speak on defending civil rights at Drury University
