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.
The Wallace Family
“A SEDITION TRIAL,” says Mr. Witte, referring to the Braden trial, … ," provides shocking evidence of the extent to which people in our democracy have lost faith in the substance and vital processes of liberty. Only when our faith in the correctness of the ideals of liberty is so strong that we can tolerate, even boast of the heretics in our midst, can we justifiably claim to be the heirs of the estate of freedom bequeathed us by Jefferson, Tom Paine and the others who defied the wrath of the crown that they might honor their own consciences as free men.”
--from an editorial written by Tom Wallace, praising James. G. Witte Jr., an Indiana educator, for speaking up on behalf of Carl and Anne Braden when they were charged with sedition.
Tom Wallace was a noted conservationist who used his position as editor of the Louisville Times to wage campaigns on issues for which he felt passionately. Wallace was a hard-hitting and respected editor who once remarked that “an editorial page without spunk is bunk.” That phrase could aptly apply to three generations of the Wallace family (and counting) who have dedicated their lives to addressing injustice.
His grandson, Tom Wallace Lyons, a third generation supporter of the ACLU of Kentucky, attributes a great deal of the ideological underpinnings of the family to the principles espoused by his grandfather.
Tom and Augusta French Wallace had two children, Augusta and Henry. Augusta was an active supporter of civil rights who marched on Washington to support Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. She also became an early advocate of reproductive rights, and was instrumental in supporting the formation of the ACLU-KY’s Reproductive Freedom Project.
Henry Wallace and his wife Sonja deVries were ardent opponents of the death penalty, and were drawn to the ACLU as an organization willing to stand up against the abuse of power. Henry spent his adult life working alongside Anne Braden, who his father had defended in his blistering editorial some years before. He also worked with others in the struggle for African-American civil rights, later in the fight for LGBT equality, and in any instance where people were marginalized or locked out in society. Upon his death, Henry became the largest donor to date of the ACLU-KY, strengthening our work for the future.
Cousins Tom Wallace Lyons and Carla Wallace both recount connecting with the ACLU in their teen years through conversations with their parents. Tom became an advocate against the death penalty as well, while Carla has spent her life working against racism and for LGBT equality.
Carla became a co-founder of the Fairness Campaign in Louisville, which emerged from those fighting for racial equality to fight for LGBT rights. From the beginning, the Fairness Campaign has held a dual mission of dismantling racism and advocating for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Understanding the intersections between all forms of oppression is a trait most think of when you mention the Wallace family. That can be traced to the multi-generational connections they have passed down to one another.
Carla’s siblings are equally committed to working against injustice through the arts, both here and abroad. Her sister Naomi is an internationally renowned playwright lauded for her work that weaves the historical and political. Her sister Sonja is a poet and filmmaker whose work covers justice movements all over the globe, most notably Cuba and Palestine. Naomi's and Sonja’s children are carrying on the family’s legacy in their own ways.
“It’s never about our work being done. It’s best to embrace a lifetime of working for equity and justice than to think this is something that has a stopping point, and share that forward to those that come after us.” – Carla Wallace