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In Max Wallace's absorbing biography of Helen Keller, After the Miracle, the author illuminates Keller's often overlooked dedication to the fight for civil rights. Through her lifetime, she was involved with a wide number of causes and organizations, from joining the Socialist Party to campaigning against U.S. involvement in World War I, to speaking out against apartheid. One of the ways she has left a lasting legacy is as a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The start of what would become the ACLU grew out of concerns about U.S. involvement in World War I, and how it was affecting American society. In 1915, a group of pacifists in New York City founded the Anti-Militarism Committee, which would go by multiple other names, including the American Union Against Militarism (AUAM). This group was dedicated to opposing involvement in the war, and after the U.S. joined, to protecting civil liberties and supporting conscientious objectors. For the latter, the ...
