Church and state

Born in Flushing (Queens), New York City, N.Y., Friedman attended the University at Buffalo (SUNY) as an undergraduate and Boston University School of Law, graduated in 1977. His first work after law school was in legal services. He began working with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky in 1983 as a volunteer cooperating attorney. A year later (1984), Friedman became the group’s general counsel and served in that position for 25 years often taking the lead on cases that dealt with reproductive freedom, separation of church and state, freedom of speech and other civil liberties issues. In 2005, he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the ACLU of Kentucky that the display of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse violated constitutional principles. This is the second interview with David Friedman for this organizational history project. The previous interview was conducted by Mary Pace on March 10, 2011. That interview and its index are on deposit at the Oral History Center of the University of Louisville. In this second interview, Friedman revisits some of the same themes from his first interview: great pride in the ACLU’s mission, a genuine and personal passion for the legal work, the importance of educating the public on civil liberties and how media relations played a role in that work. Friedman discusses how Kentucky’s politics and culture have placed it on frontline of efforts to protect reproductive freedom and the separation of church and state.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wilson received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern Kentucky University and worked as a newspaper reporter in Kentucky and Tennessee. She received a master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee. Wilson worked as a reproductive rights advocate and counselor before becoming the director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky in 1993. She became the executive director of the ACLU-KY in 2003. Four years later (2007), she became the deputy director of the ACLU of Florida. Wilson talks about her transition from journalism to advocacy and social justice work. Her 14 years with the ACLU-KY (1993 to 2007) include important episodes concerning reproductive rights and separation of church and state. She also discusses changes that took place in organization’s management structure, expanded public outreach, and additional staffing. Wilson discusses legislative lobbying and public education efforts. Much of the interview focuses on reproductive freedom issues as she directed that program for 10 of her 14 years with the ACLU-KY. Wilson recalls the establishment of a youth leadership program as being particularly meaningful, as was hearing ane ACLU-KY attorney argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. She gives much credit is to the people who taught her about civil liberties.