Posted August 18, 2006.

ALA Wins Freedom of Speech Award

Chicago’s Newberry Library presented the American Library Association with the John Peter Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award July 29 during the 20th Annual Bughouse Square Debates, a celebration of outdoor soapbox oratory sponsored by the library, in Washington Square Park. The award, named after the Illinois governor who in 1893 pardoned the three surviving defendants in the Haymarket Riot trial, honors a person or organization that has achieved recognition as a defender of free speech and ideas.

The award was presented by University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone, who cited the Association’s “principled defense over many years of the freedom to read, think, write, and speak,” and singled out the ALA Library Bill of Rights, the work of the Office for Intellectual Freedom and Banned Books Week, and the Freedom to Read Foundation’s challenges to the USA Patriot Act of 2001.

This is the first time the award has gone to an organization rather than an individual. Previous recipients have included peace activist Kathy Kelly, Chicago politician Leon Despres, social historian Lila Weinberg, and former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Seymour Simon. ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels accepted the award on behalf of the Association.

Posted August 18, 2006.