ACLU-NJ Annual Report 2021:
A Vision of Justice

“In 2021, we thought deeply about our vision, our mission, and how to best achieve it. At the core of it is justice.

Justice is the beating heart that powers the work of the ACLU, as you'll read about in the stories in this report. Justice is the recognition that where inequities exist, the people who experience the brunt - people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ folks, to name a few - are leaders and partners in the fight for fairness. Justice fuels our progress in the courts, the Legislature, the streets, the media, and any place in New Jersey where power disenfranchised people of the freedom they're entitled to.

We're proud to provide a small window into our work toward justice and we're proud to continue this work with you.” (link)

ACLU-NJ Annual Report 2020:
A Turning Point for New Jersey

“In the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how deep the existing fissures in our society go, and it has exacerbated inequities that have long been with us. Against that backdrop, we entered a moment of reckoning with policing and racial justice, and we withstood an election that tested the limits of our democracy.

In the final days of the Trump administration, we watched a violent, white supremacist mob attempt to reverse the outcome of a democratic election. It was among our nation’s darkest days.

Despite the crises and their devastation, the ACLU of New Jersey and our supporters have played a role in powerful movements that altered the course of America. Across the country, we united to protest police killings of Black people, protect democracy, and demand racial justice, including here in New Jersey.” (link)

ACLU-NJ Annual Report 2019:
“We the People” Means All of Us

“We initially planned for this annual report — a wrap-up of 2019 in its entirety, from the vantage point of 2020 — to reach your mailboxes and inboxes in March.

Then, the coronavirus hit. Along with everything else, the pandemic threw our timeline into disarray. As with many unprecedented crises in the last 100 years, the ACLU has sprung into action to confront new threats to our rights. The era of COVID-19 is no different.

This pandemic has exposed the fault lines of a society that we know has always been unequal. To be sure, the response to COVID-19 is a racial justice issue. Every institution in our country has been plagued with systemic racism, and those injustices have further surfaced and been exacerbated by this pandemic. In short, we see our role as ensuring that we limit the spread of the virus so that it does not devastate the most vulnerable communities, and addressing the injustices that are created by both insufficient and overzealous government response.” (link)