1940s

The outbreak of World War II brought new challenges for the ACLU-NC.  In the tradition of the national ACLU, which was founded to defend conscientious objectors during World War I, the ACLU-NC fought for the rights of objectors. 

One of the proudest episodes of ACLU-NC history was its almost solitary challenge to the wartime relocation and forced detention of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans.

In 1942, San Leandro draftsman Fred Korematsu was jailed for refusing to obey President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 ordering all citizens of Japanese descent to report to relocation centers.

"I was stunned, I couldn't believe this was happening in America," Korematsu recalled.  "I was surprised when the guard came and told me I had a visitor.  I didn't know him, but he introduced himself as Mr. Ernest Besig of the American Civil Liberties Union."

The ACLU-NC took the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that the exclusion and detention laws violated basic constitutional rights.

In 1943, the high court upheld Korematsu's conviction and the war measures on the grounds of military necessity.

The national ACLU disagreed with the affiliate's strong stance against the internment and urged the ACLU-NC to drop its representation of Korematsu.  This disagreement produced longstanding strain between the affiliate and the national office, which was not resolved until after Besig's retirement.