Roger Nash Baldwin

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

Roger Nash Baldwinwas one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950.

About the Roger Nash Baldwin

Roger Nash Baldwinwas one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950.

Many of the ACLU’s original landmark cases took place under his direction, including the Scopes Trial, the Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial, and its challenge to the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses. Baldwin was a well-known pacifist and author.

7 Quotes by Roger Nash Baldwin

  1. 1.

    I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself… I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

  2. 2.

    I regard the principle of conscription of life as a flat contradiction of all our cherished ideals of individual freedom, democratic liberty and Christian teaching.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

  3. 3.

    I cannot consistently, with self respect, do other than I have, namely, to deliberately violate an act which seems to me to be a denial of everything which ideally and in practice I hold sacred.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

  4. 4.

    The smallest deed is better than the grandest intention.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

  5. 5.

    The rule of law in place of force, always basic to my thinking, now takes on a new relevance in a world where, if war is to go, only law can replace it.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

  6. 6.

    I would say that social work began in my mind in the Unitarian Church when I was ten or twelve years old, and I started to do things that I thought would help other people.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)

  7. 7.

    So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we’ll be called a democracy.

    Roger Nash Baldwin

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) co-founder (1884-1981)