Contact: Allen Gilbert, executive director, 223-6304, Ext.115; agilbert@acluvt.org

MONTPELIER -- Dr. Irving Adler of North Bennington, who as a public school teacher in New York was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, will be presented with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont’s annual meeting Saturday, Oct. 31 at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier.

Adler, 96, was among nearly 400 New York teachers who lost their jobs following passage of that state’s “Feinberg Law,” which prohibited members of “subversive organizations” from teaching in New York schools. Adler went on to become an author, writing children’s books, textbooks, and works on education theory and philosophy, and still later in life a scientist with an interest in mathematical biology.

Adler moved to Vermont in 1960, where he was president of the “Vermont in Mississippi Project,” chaired the Coordinating Committee of Vermont Peace Organizations, served on the Shaftsbury and Mt. Anthony Union High School boards, involved himself in myriad other civic projects, and wrote frequent letters to his local paper, the Bennington Banner.

As a young man in New York City, Adler had been active in politics and union organizing. He had joined the Communist Party, an affiliation that led to his blacklisting in 1954 under the Feinberg Law. Adler and others challenged the law in court, eventually taking their argument to the U.S. Supreme Court. There they lost. Nearly 20 years later, however, a subsequent Supreme Court decision overturned that ruling, and Adler won back the right to teach in New York schools.

A documentary film is now being made of the teacher blacklisting. The film was the subject of a New York Times article this summer after the filmmakers complained that the government was still -- a half-century later -- blocking access to government files about the cases. Information about the film can be found at www.DreamersAndFighters.com.

The ACLU-Vermont’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” is not given annually. Instead, it is awarded only occasionally, to those individuals who throughout their lives have shown a steadfast commitment to protecting and promoting Americans’ individual rights.

The ACLU’s annual meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. Updates of ACLU activities, the awards, a fundraising auction, and luncheon follow, with a guest speaker offering the keynote address in the afternoon.

The speaker this year is award-winning investigative journalist, retired Newsday editor, and Vermont native Anthony Marro. He will address the question, “Who holds government accountable when there are no more newspapers?”

The ACLU is a nonprofit organization with 2,500 members in Vermont and 500,000 nationally. It accepts no government funding for its work, relying instead on contributions from private citizens. Its sole function is to protect the civil liberties enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.