Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases

by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Michael Chabon (Editor), Ayelet Waldman (Editor), Dave Cole (Foreword by), Jacqueline woodson

Overview

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case.

On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue.

Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU’s stance on campaign finance.

These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted.

Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501190414
Publisher:	Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/19/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	307,670
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Edited by Michal Chabon and Ayelet Waldman; Foreword by Dave Cole. Contributors include: Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jacqueline Woodson, Ann Patchett, Brit Bennett, David Handler, Geraldine Brooks, Yaa Gyasi, Sergio De La Pava, Dave Eggers, Timothy Egan, Li Yiyun, Meg Wolitzer, Hector Tobar, Aleksandar Hemon, Elizabeth Strout, Rabih Alameddine, Moriel Rothman-Zecher, Jonathan Lethem, Salman Rushdie, Lauren Groff, Jennifer Egan, Scott Turow, Morgan Parker, Victor Lavalle, Michael Cunningham, Neil Gaiman, Jesmyn Ward, Moses Sumney, George Saunders, Marlon James, William Finnegan, Anthony Doerr, C.J .Anders, Brenda J. Childs, Andrew Sean Greer, Louise Erdrich, and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.

Table of Contents

Introduction Michael Chabon Ayelet Waldman xiii

Foreword David Cole xvii

Viet Thanh Nguyen on Stromberg v. California (1931) 1

Jacqueline Woodson on Powell v. Alabama (1932) and Patterson v. Alabama (1935) 6

Michael Chabon on United States v. One Book Called "Ulysses" (1933) 11

Ann Patchett on Edwards v. California (1941) 24

Brit Bennett on West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) 29

Steven Okazaki on Korematsu v. United States (1944) 34

Daniel Handler on Hannegan v. Esquire (1946) 40

Geraldine Brooks on Terminiello v. City of Chicago (1949) 44

Yaa Gyasi on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) 49

Sergio De La Pava on Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) 57

Dave Eggers on Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) 66

Timothy Egan on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) 71

Yiyun Li on Lamont v. Postmaster General (1965) 77

Meg Wolitzer on Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) 82

Hector Tobar on Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 86

Aleksandar Hemon on Loving v. Virginia (1967) 93

Elizabeth Strout On Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) 100

Adrian Nicole Leblanc on Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969) 105

Rabih Alameddine on Street v. New York (1969) 112

Moriel Rothman-Zecher on Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) 118

Jonathan Lethem on Cohen v. California (1971) 128

Salman Rushdie on New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) 133

Lauren Groff on Roe v. Wade (1973) and Doe v. Bolton (1973) 138

Ayelet Waldman on O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) 145

Jennifer Egan on Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975) 152

Scott Turow on Buckley v. Valeo (1976) 158

Morgan Parker on Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) 166

Victor Lavalle on Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) 183

Michael Cunningham on Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995) 189

Neil Gaiman on Reno v. ACLU (1997) and Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004) 196

Jesmyn Ward On City of Chicago v. Morales (1999) 205

Moses Sumney on Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) 213

George Saunders on Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St Cyr (2001) 224

Marlon James on Lawrence v. Texas (2003) 237

William Finnegan on Rasul v. Bush (2004) 243

Anthony Doerr on Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005) 252

Charlie Jane Anders on Schroer v. Billington (2008) 263

Brenda J. Child on Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013) 268

Andrew Sean Greer on United States v. Windsor (2013) 280

Louise Erdrich on ACLU v. United States Department of Defense, et al. (2018) 286

Acknowledgments 293

The Contributors 295

Copyright Credits 303

Editorial Reviews

Moving . . . Entertaining . . . It’s enlightening to watch some of our most masterly literary portraitists restore the warts and wardrobes, the motivations and machinations to those whose stories have been stripped down to surnames or pseudonyms.”
—Monica Youn, New York Times Book Review

"Vigorous, informative, and well-organized, this outstanding collection befits the ACLU’s substantial impact on American law and society."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A stunning collection of original and topical essays . . . [that] vividly brings consequential court cases to life."
—Booklist (starred review)

"A finely edited almanac of lively, contextually grounded stories that read like the greatest hits of freedom . . . Provides insights that are both riveting and refreshingly diverse."
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2020

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been at the forefront of cases related to civil rights in the United States for more than a century. Marking the organization's centennial, this collection edited by Chabon (The Yiddish Policeman's Union) and Waldman (Love and Treasure) examines not just the history, but also the social context and ongoing impact of the ACLU's landmark rulings. Highlights include Chabon's analysis of the 1933 case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, describing how the James Joyce novel was labeled obscene and its import forbidden under the Tariff Act of 1930. Author Marlon James explores how racism and homophobia intersect in Lawrence v. Texas, the case that found discriminatory laws regulating homosexual sex unconstitutional. Poet Morgan Parker's response to Bob Jones University v. United States recounts a sermon by the evangelical university's founder supporting segregation, and considers the use of biblical distortion to uphold oppression. VERDICT At a time in which civil rights are under threat worldwide, this collection is a reminder that basic human rights and dignity tend to get crushed under populism. An essential, necessary look at a century of progress, with a eye to the ever-present threat of losing those hard-won rights.—Bart Everts, Rutgers Univ.-Camden Lib., NJ.

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