Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, will come to North Carolina in February to deliver the keynote address at the 46th annual Frank Porter Graham Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 28, 2015, in Chapel Hill.
Romero took the helm of the organization just seven days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Shortly afterward, the ACLU launched its national Keep America Safe and Free campaign to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis, achieving court victories challenging the USA Patriot Act, uncovering thousands of pages of documents detailing the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, and filing the first successful legal challenge to the Bush administration's illegal NSA spying program.
An attorney with a history of public interest activism, Romero has presided over the most successful membership growth in the ACLU's history and a large increase in national and affiliate staff. This extraordinary growth has allowed the ACLU to expand its nationwide litigation, lobbying and public education efforts, including new initiatives focused on human rights, racial justice, religious freedom, technology and privacy, reproductive freedom, criminal law reform and LGBT rights
Romero is the ACLU's sixth executive director, and the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. In 2005, Romero was named one of Time Magazine's 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America. Born in New York City to parents who hailed from Puerto Rico, Romero was the first in his family to graduate from high school.
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