This is one in a series of profiles marking the 60th anniversary of the ACLU of Kentucky’s founding. Each week through December 2015 we will highlight the story of one member, client, case, board or staff member that has been an integral part of our organization’s rich history.
Bill Allison
“The courts, the streets, and passing laws, those are three key prongs of changing things for the better–not only in this country, but in the world. If we have those rights, we can change wrongs if we can just get enough people on our side.” -Bill Allison
ACLU of Kentucky cooperating attorney Bill Allison started his law career with the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), an organization closely connected with Carl and Anne Braden. SCEF was a Southern civil rights organization, and so from the beginning of his career, Allison was involved in civil rights and civil liberties litigation. “All of the different freedom efforts that we take for granted today came out of the struggle against segregation that had been going on for a long time,” Allison explained.
The year that Allison began practicing law, he worked as a cooperating attorney on an ACLU-KY case about anti-war and free speech issues. When several anti-war activists decided to open an anti-war coffeehouse near Fort Knox as a way to protest the war and the draft, they were charged with “public nuisance.” Allison and other ACLU-KY attorneys defended the antiwar activists’ right to freely express their opinions. Allison also independently defended several men who had been drafted but objected to the war effort.
Allison’s most famous litigation work with the ACLU-KY, however, was related to what is now called the “Black Six case.” In 1968, the year before Allison began practicing law, a local black realtor was the victim of police brutality, and his case picked up support throughout the black community. It culminated in riots, open housing marches, and six black leaders being arrested for conspiracy to destroy private property. The case was moved out of Louisville in order to get a fair trial, and two individuals “were doing some organizing down in the [new] county, telling the people down there, ‘don’t let Louisville officials put Louisville problems off on you all,’” Allison explained. Those two individuals were later charged with trying to influence a jury, and in 1970 Allison worked with the ACLU-KY to represent them. Both cases were eventually dismissed.
“I think that the most important thing is that in this country, we do have a very good Constitution and Bill of Rights,” Allison said. “And as long as we have those rights, then any time there’s an injustice, we can use those rights to speak out and to protest.”