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Murray Underwood
Roger Baldwin Award
Murray Underwood has been an active member of the ACLU for 60 years. “I’ve been an activist all my life,” he said. Underwood was first introduced to the ACLU by a coworker and became involved with the organization in 1951. “It was the one organization that was solidly for things I believed in,” he said. “I have been working for and with the organization to accomplish a lot of things I believe need accomplishing,” he said. His involvement started during the anti-communism era of the 1950s when many people believed organizations like the ACLU were pro-communism. Underwood strongly disagreed, pointing out the ACLU’s focus on rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
“The ACLU is a smart organization, based on defending the Constitution of the United States. [ACLU founder Roger] Baldwin was smart to focus on the constitution.” Underwood was elected to the ACLU-EM board in 1967 and continues to serve.
One of Underwood’s biggest achievements includes his work with the Missouri Coalition Against Censorship. He said it was a long effort but the group was successful in lifting bans on such books as Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence and Ulysses by James Joyce. “I am puzzled by people who attack very good books,” he said.
Some other issues Underwood has brought attention to include police corruption and brutality, LGBT rights, racial justice, reproductive rights, and separation of church and state. Over the years, he believes he “achieved something” by bringing these issues to the forefront. “We don’t advocate that our political system should be changed, but that basic laws be respected,” he said. “If we have a real democracy, then people will organize for the benefit of the people.”
Even at age 94, Underwood shows no signs of slowing down. He worked as a chemical engineer and retired from Monsanto in 1978. Subsequently he taught Chemical Engineering at Washington University until 1996. He and his wife, Mary Jane, are still actively involved in the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and both are committed to the organization’s work. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary earlier this year.
Thomas Blumenthal
Civil Liberties Award
Thomas Blumenthal became interested in the ACLU as a college student during the Vietnam War. “The ACLU seemed to be an organization with principles in tune with defending the goals of peaceful resistance,” Blumenthal said. In his first year practicing law, Tom had a fellowship in Topeka, Kansas representing poor people. He was contacted by the executive director of the ACLU Kansas affiliate in Topeka about filing a lawsuit on behalf of the inmates in the Shawnee County Jail. After uncovering the deplorable living conditions, the ACLU successfully shut down the jail with Tom as cooperating attorney.
Tom became actively involved with the ACLU of Eastern Missouri in 1985 when asked by his law partner to update the Legal Steering Committee on a case they were handling. He started serving on the Legal Steering Committee, and subsequently as a board member, as a cooperating attorney, and as Board president on two separate occasions, from 1989-1992, and from 2006-2009. Most recently, during his service as president the ACLU-EM was designated a “strategic affiliate” by the national ACLU. Today he remains a Board Member and is a partner in the law firm of Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal.
Blumenthal said the high points in his legal career are “almost always connected with the ACLU.” Working with the ACLU has given him the opportunity to work on cases that the average lawyer might never get. One of the biggest highlights of his career came in 1989 in a case presented to the Supreme Court of the United States, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. Although he did not argue the case, he was one of the ACLU-EM cooperating attorneys and served as second chair, finding Thurgood Marshall staring down directly in front of him from the bench. “It was my most exciting moment as an attorney,” he said.
Tom is grateful to be receiving the Civil Liberties Award and encourages all attorneys to volunteer in the work of the ACLU-EM in the defense of civil liberties.
LOIS JEAN TURNER
Distinguished Citizen Award
About 14 years ago, Lois Jean Turner was asked to join the ACLU during a bus trip to Jefferson City. Turner was headed to the State Capitol with her teachers’ union and other citizens’ groups when the ACLU of Eastern Missouri’s executive director asked her to join the organization. Turner was known as an outspoken advocate so she would be a good fit in the organization. A short time after joining, she was elected to the ACLU-EM Board and served from 1998 to 2009. Turner was eager for the group to grow and develop as an organization that fought for civil liberties. As she did during her teaching career, she demanded accountability from those around her and wanted to expand the group’s base. As an African American woman, Turner had faced discrimination throughout her life and understood the underlying mission of the ACLU. “You can’t have civil liberties without civil rights, and civil rights are human rights,” Turner said.
In 1978, Turner was elected to the St. Louis Public School Board where she served for many years. Upon her retirement, she became a board member for the Public School Retirement System of the City of St. Louis where she worked to improve health insurance benefits for retirees. She also helped implement changes in investment practices and objectives, which resulted in notable growth in the organization’s assets.
Turner began her advocacy long before her 41-year teaching career began. She became especially active during the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. “I didn’t march,” she said, “but I wrote letters, and made phone calls, and went on the radio.” She spoke up for people who couldn’t speak for themselves, especially children. In 1967, she became the first African American teacher at Stix School in St. Louis. Her first order of business was to bring black and white students together literally by rearranging the desks in her classroom. “I noticed the black children all sat in the back of the room and the white children sat in the front,” she said. With her students’ help, she set up desks to face each other so each student looked directly at a classmate. Her goal was to create a cohesive community in her classroom, much like she did in her neighborhood. “It starts with the community...churches, schools, and your neighbors. You’ve got to love your neighbors because they are closest to you beyond your family,” she said.
Turner is proud but modest about receiving the Distinguished Citizen Award at next month’s Bill of Rights Celebration. “I am very humbled to be considered distinguished,” she said. I don’t consider myself a distinguished person, but I have distinguished people around me at all times.” When asked what advice she would give the next generation of civil libertarians, Turner did not hesitate. “You have to read. If you don’t read, you won’t know what’s going on in the world,” she said. “There will be no peace if you don’t know what’s going on.”
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