Presentation will take place at December 8th Bill of Rights Celebration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2011
CONTACT: Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director, ACLU of Tennessee, (615) 320-7142
NASHVILLE - The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) today announced that Jane Eskind will receive the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, December 8th at its annual Bill of Rights Celebration. ACLU-TN is recognizing Eskind for her nearly five decades of leadership in advancing the role of women in electoral politics and changing the political landscape in Tennessee; Mrs. Eskind was the first woman to win a statewide election.
According to Hedy Weinberg, ACLU-TN Executive Director, “We are delighted to be honoring Jane Eskind with our Lifetime Achievement Award. Jane has dedicated her life to empowering women, increasing their participation in the political arena, and widening the range of voices in the political debate. As a political pioneer, Jane has created a more open and inclusive participatory democracy.”
In addition, ACLU-TN will present its 2011 Bill of Rights Award to Karyn Storts-Brinks, the Knoxville public school librarian, whose efforts to support her LGBT students and to protect their freedom of speech rights led to the formation of ACLU’s national “Don’t Filter Me” project and to her receipt of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award. “Karyn is a tenacious advocate on behalf of her students,” Weinberg said.
At the forefront of civil liberties battles across Tennessee, ACLU-TN employs a range of strategies including advocacy, education, legislative lobbying and litigation to ensure that Tennesseans’ constitutional freedoms are being protected. An affiliate of the National ACLU, ACLU-TN is a private, non-profit, non-partisan membership organization.
Recent ACLU-TN highlights include: successfully defending students’ religious freedom in a series of lawsuits across the state; defeating anti-civil-liberties legislation such as the "Don't Say Gay in School" bill (a legislative attempt to restrict free speech and attack LGBT rights), an anti-evolution bill, and an Arizona-style racial profiling bill; and empowering youth through our annual Students’ Rights Conference.
ACLU-TN’s Bill of Rights Celebration will begin at 6:30 pm with a silent auction of autographed books, art and more. Dinner and the awards presentation will follow at 7:45 p.m. The Celebration will take place at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel at 2100 West End Avenue in Nashville.
Tickets are $125 per person and sponsorship opportunities are available. Tickets and sponsorships may be purchased by calling the ACLU-TN office at 615-320-7142.
