1950s

During the political witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, the ACLU-NC came to the defense of hundreds of victims of federal and state "loyalty and security" programs.

Against all odds in the Red Scare climate, the ACLU-NC won court decisions striking down a wide variety of loyalty oaths--from those required of recipients of unemployment benefits, to the Levering Act, which exacted oaths from all public officials and state employees in California, including teachers.

After the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) held its widely publicized hearings in San Francisco, where labor leaders refused to testify and protestors were hosed down the steps of City Hall by police, the government released a distorted propaganda film, Operation Abolition.  In a counterattack that was ahead of its time, Besig produced a film refutation of the government version.  The ACLU-NC's Operation Correction was distributed nationally.

In 1957, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was put on trial for selling copies of poet Allen Ginsberg's Howl at his three-year-old bookstore, City Lights, in North Beach.  The ACLU-NC successfully defended Ferlinghetti against charges of "obscenity."  "If it hadn't been for the ACLU," Ferlinghetti said, "we'd have been out of business forever."