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.
Emi Ramirez
"It’s easy to be overwhelmed with everything going on in the world, all of the problems. But the important thing is to do something and remember that no action is too small!” -- Emi Ramirez
Maria Emilia ("Emi") Ramirez has devoted years of her time and energy to the ACLU of Kentucky as a volunteer, an intern, a staff member, and later a member of the Board of Directors. After learning about the ACLU-KY’s work during a class presentation, she signed up to volunteer because the affiliate’s work matched her personal passions -- restoration of voting rights for former felons, abolition of the death penalty, supporting the formation of gay/straight alliances in high schools, public education campaigns and actions around racial profiling, and teaching people of color, immigrants, and young people their rights when dealing with law enforcement.
Her parents supported her work, and respected her dedication, but a Bill of Rights dinner several years ago gave her father some new insight into the organization. Emi recalled the evening, saying: “After [the keynote speaker’s] remarks, my father looked at me and said the work the ACLU does is what makes the United States so special. My family is from Argentina and my parents lived through the military dictatorship, during a time when students who stood up were silenced, tortured, and killed. He finally understood the magnitude of work that the ACLU and I [were] doing and was very proud that I was working at the organization.”
Emi’s groundbreaking work to develop the affiliate’s Immigrants’ Rights Program and to get the Youth Rights Conference off the ground is part of her lasting legacy. Reflecting on the contributions she is most proud of, Emi said: “It was very rewarding to have planned the first Immigrant and Refugee Rights Advocacy Day in Frankfort. It was the first time people from across the state came together to lobby for immigrants’ rights.”
The ACLU-KY celebrates Emi as a Face of Liberty and recognizes the strong foundations she helped build in a variety of program areas that our current work rests on today.