CHAPEL HILL - The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina is commemorating five decades of work defending civil liberties with a 10-panel exhibit at the Chapel Hill Public Library this fall. ACLU of North Carolina: Fifty Years of Protecting Liberty documents ACLU-NC’s work on the key issues of free speech, racial justice, voting rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, privacy rights, criminal justice reform, and religious liberty.

“The ACLU of North Carolina has been on the front lines of issues that continue to be critically important across our state and right here in our community,” said Chapel Hill Public Library Director Susan Brown. “The ACLU-NC was founded to challenge the infamous ‘Speaker Ban,’ and Chapel Hill was the epicenter of that historic fight for free speech. We are proud to be the Triangle’s host location for the exhibit.”

On Sunday, September 13, at 7:00 p.m., the public is invited to an opening reception at the Library, located at 100 Library Drive in Chapel Hill. Members of the ACLU-NC will be present and area residents can engage with both them and the exhibit, while enjoying light refreshments and hearing about the past, present, and future of the ACLU-NC. RSVP online here.

Throughout the fall, the Library will present a series of programs on each of the issues addressed in the exhibit. The first, on Tuesday September 14th, is a discussion of LGBT Equality featuring Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle. Other programs will feature authors from UNC Press, professors from UNC-Chapel Hill, and ACLU-NC staff who have worked to advance civil liberties in North Carolina. The final event is a program on Criminal Justice featuring Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue and others. Details on the full slate of programs are available at www.chapelhillpubliclibrary.org.

“The ACLU of North Carolina has been on the front lines of so many struggles to protect civil liberties in our state over the last half century, and we’re excited that Triangle residents will have the opportunity to learn more about our work through this exhibit,” said acting ACLU-NC Executive Director Sarah Preston.

The exhibit debuted at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro before traveling to Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, and then New Hanover County Public Library in Wilmington. The ACLU-NC, the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, the Human Rights Archive at the Rubenstein Library, and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture sponsor the exhibit. Amanda Hughett compiled the research for the exhibit, and Pam Chastain and Jim Jarvis designed it.

Founded in 1965, the ACLU of North Carolina is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving and expanding the guarantees of individual liberty found in the United States and North Carolina Constitutions.