CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, will travel to North Carolina on Saturday, February 28, to deliver the keynote address at the ACLU of North Carolina’s annual Frank Porter Graham Awards Dinner.
The statewide civil liberties organization, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1965, will honor several individuals with awards for their efforts toward advancing civil liberties in North Carolina. The event is sold out.
What: ACLU of North Carolina’s Frank Porter Graham Awards Dinner
When: Saturday, February 28, 2015, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education, 100 Friday Center Drive, Chapel Hill, NC.
Who:
Anthony Romero, Keynote Speaker. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation's premier defender of liberty and individual freedom. 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
Jim Grant, Recipient of the Frank Porter Graham Award, the ACLU-NC’s highest honor awarded for longstanding and significant contributions to the fight for individual freedom and civil liberties in North Carolina. A Wilson resident with a long history of civil rights activism, Grant was incarcerated for nearly four years in the 1970s after being arrested and charged as a “political terrorist” in a case in which the government paid witnesses against him and two other African American men, known collectively as the “Charlotte Three.” Grant received the longest sentence of 25 years; their sentences were eventually commuted.
Mary Kent Whitaker, Recipient of the ACLU-NC Award for deep commitment to preserving and defending civil liberties in North Carolina. Watauga High School English teacher Mary Kent Whitaker gained much-deserved statewide and national attention last year for her courageous stand to defend her students’ freedom to read. Whitaker led a lengthy and successful campaign to keep Isabel Allende’s critically acclaimed novel, “The House of the Spirits,” in her honors sophomore English class after it was abruptly removed when a parent brought a challenge. Whitaker, a teacher for 38 years, was recently named the state’s 2014-15 Outstanding English Teacher by the North Carolina English Teachers Association.
Families who served as plaintiffs in two successful ACLU lawsuits that won the freedom to marry in North Carolina, Recipients of the Sharon Thompson Award for exemplary efforts toward advancing equal rights for LGBT persons in North Carolina. By volunteering to share their personal lives and struggles with the public, the nine families in two federal lawsuits brought by the ACLU, Fisher-Borne et al. v. Smith and Gerber and Berlin et al. v. Cooper, became the faces of the fight for the freedom to marry in North Carolina. Their efforts helped countless couples across the state who now have the freedom to marry and adopt their partner’s children. The plaintiffs are: Marcie and Chantelle Fisher-Borne, of Durham, and their children Miley and Elijah; Shana Carignan and Megan Parker Carignan, of Greensboro, and their son Jax; Shawn Long and Craig Johnson, of Wake Forest, and their son Isaiah; Crystal Hendrix and Leigh Smith, of Asheville, and their children Quinn and Joe; Lee Knight Caffery and Dana Draa, of Charlotte, and their children Miller and Margot; Leslie Zanaglio and Terri Beck, of Morrisville, and their two sons; Ellen "Lennie" Gerber and Pearl Berlin, of High Point; Jane Blackburn and Lyn McCoy, of Greensboro; and Esmeralda Mejia and Christina Ginter-Mejia, of Hickory, and their son Julian Ginter-Mejia.
Bill Massengale and Marilyn Ozer, Recipients of the Paul Green Award, for extraordinary efforts to abolish or limit the death penalty in North Carolina. Chapel Hill-based attorneys Massengale and Ozer, who have been representing capital defendants on appeal since 1991. With extraordinary compassion for their clients and a relentless pursuit of justice, Massengale and Ozer have saved at least six individuals from execution and worked to increase public awareness of capital punishment’s many injustices.In July 2014, Massengale and Ozer reached a settlement with North Carolina to convert the twice-issued death sentence of Eric Call to life in prison after it was discovered the state lost evidence that may have exonerated Call. Last year, Massengale and Ozer took on their 25th client facing the death penalty.
Josh McIntyre, Recipient of the Norman Smith Award, for volunteering extraordinary time and effort in service to the ACLU of North Carolina. As treasurer of the ACLU of North Carolina’s Wake County chapter, McIntyre manages the group’s finances and helps organize the chapter’s annual W.W. Finlator Awards Dinner and other events. He has helped the ACLU-NC on innumerable occasions, tabling at events, volunteering at the Frank Porter Graham Awards, marching in demonstrations carrying an ACLU-NC banner, and more. A committed civil libertarian, McIntyre also has volunteer leadership roles with NC Stop Torture Now, the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina, and Amnesty International – Group 213, Raleigh.
More information about the award recipients is available here.