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"National ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero to Keynote Annual Dinner Honoring Public Defender Bennett Brummer"
The ACLU Foundation of Florida will honor longtime Miami-Dade Public Defender Bennett H. Brummer with the 2002 Nelson Poynter Award at its annual dinner on Saturday, May 4.
The 2002 Nelson Poynter Award Dinner will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 50 Alhambra Plaza, in Coral Gables. An hors d'oeuvres and open bar reception will be at 6:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m.
The award dinner also features keynote speaker Anthony D. Romero, the former Ford Foundation executive and public interest attorney who became the National ACLU's sixth executive director in September 2001.
Brummer will be presented with the 2002 Nelson Poynter Award, which is given annually to people who have worked tirelessly to advance civil liberties and civil rights in Florida. Past recipients include former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, former ABA President Chesterfield Smith, former Governor LeRoy Collins, former State Senator Jack Gordon, State Rep. Lois Frankel, former Florida Supreme Court Justice (now federal judge) Rosemary Barkett and former Miami-Dade County School Board Member Janet McAliley. Jacksonville civil rights attorney William J. Sheppard was the previous Nelson Poynter Award recipient.
The award is named for Nelson Poynter, the former crusading editor and publisher of the St. Petersburg Times. For Poynter, the Bill of Rights was meant for daily use ? it was not an abstract document. Never afraid to stand up for unpopular causes, he fought racial segregation, staunchly defended the right of a free press and led the fight for Florida's Sunshine Law.
To reserve tickets or place your message in the commemorative program honoring Brummer, the work of the ACLU, or to welcome Anthony Romero to Florida, please call Director of Membership and Major Gifts, Jessica Connor, at (305) 576-2337, ext. 13, or e-mail her at jconnor@aclufl.org.
Ticket prices are listed in the coupon on page 4.
Brummer, a Miami-Dade County Public Defender for 27 years and the longest serving public defender in Florida, is highly regarded not only in the community but in the state, as his office has trained some of the most well-respected criminal defense attorneys in Florida. He is known particularly for his record of public service in assuring that all people charged by the state with a crime have the right to competent counsel and due process of law.
Born in New York City, Brummer came to Miami in 1958. He graduated from the University of Miami Law School in 1965. After serving in the Peace Corps for two years in Venezuela, Brummer received the Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania to work with Legal Services of Greater Miami, where he worked for nearly three years. In 1971, he joined the staff of the Dade County Public Defender's Office as an Assistant Public Defender in the Appellate Division. Over the next five years, he became the Chief of the Appellate Division and an Executive Assistant to the Public Defender.
'Thoughtful Public Servant'
Public defenders are generally the unsung heroes providing frontline protection for civil liberties ? attorneys who defend the constitutional rights of those without the means to provide for their own defense. No one has fulfilled that mission in Florida longer and more competently than Bennett Brummer. The Miami Herald has praised him as an "intelligent, cultivated and thoughtful public servant" who "stick[s] up for those who can't stick up for themselves." In his words, "I have spent my public career working to improve the quality of life for all people, rich and poor alike."
He was first elected Dade County Public Defender in 1976 and has since been re-elected every four years.
"Bennet Brummer has dedicated his life to the protection of individual rights and civil liberties," said Gerald T. Wetherington, former Chief Judge of the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court. "His character rebels against the arbitrary treatment of any human being and his passion for promoting human dignity and individual rights has animated his career from his early service in the Peace Corps, and throughout his long and distinguished service as public defender for Miami-Dade. He is an eminently worthy recipient of the Nelson Poynter Award."
Brummer established an Anti-Violence Initiative promoting research into the root causes of violence and the use of proven prevention and treatment programs to reduce crime. He is known for his compassionate understanding and his work in the juvenile justice system. The Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice said that it was because of Brummer that the Department employed nonviolence training for detention center supervisors. Besides his work as public defender, Brummer has served as part-time instructor at the University of Miami School of Law, as president of the Florida Public Defender Association, as a member of the board of directors of the National Legal Aid and Defender Organization, and as a member of the ABA Task Force that wrote professional standards for criminal defense attorneys.
Romero Gives Keynote Address
We are delighted that National ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero will deliver the keynote address at the 2002 Nelson Poynter Award Dinner.
A highly experienced, energetic and creative executive with a decade of leadership in large, complex and global notforprofit organizations, Romero was born in New York City of immigrant parents from Puerto Rico. Romero, who is fluent in Spanish, was the first in his family to graduate from high school and college and to receive a graduate education. He is the first Latino and openly gay man to head the ACLU.
An attorney with a history of public interest activism, Romero served as the Director of Human Rights and International Cooperation at the Ford Foundation, where he led the program through a period of extraordinary growth, transforming it into Ford's largest and most dynamic grant-making unit. In 2000, Romero channeled approximately $90 million in grants to address issues related to civil rights, human rights and peace throughout the world. Under his leadership, the Foundation launched groundbreaking grant-making initiatives to address issues including affirmative action, voting rights and redistricting, immigrants' rights, women's rights, reproductive freedom and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
Before being appointed a Director at Ford, Romero served for nearly five years as the Foundation's Program Officer for Civil Rights and Racial Justice. He also worked for two years at the Rockefeller Foundation and led a Foundation review of future directions in civil rights advocacy. He is a graduate of Stanford University Law School and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs. Romero received Stanford's Dinkelspiel Scholarship for Public Interest, was a Cane Scholar at Princeton and was a National Hispanic Scholar at both institutions.
Romero also serves as the Chairman of the Center of Disability and Advocacy Rights and as Vice Chairman of the New World Foundation's Board of Directors. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York State Bar Association and Hispanics in Philanthropy. His previous volunteer experiences include serving as Vice Chairman of the White House Internship Advisory Committee and as CoChairman of the Funders' Committee for Citizen Participation. Romero has received numerous awards for his commitment, dedication and achievements in public service.
"First and most importantly, the ACLU's commitment to free speech must be undiminished," Romero said. "From my work in countries such as China and Kenya, I have come to appreciate the central role of free speech in securing other civil rights and civil liberties. This is a core ACLU issue that will require continued advocacy and vigilance."
He added that the other core ACLU issues ? including religious liberty, reproductive freedom, women's rights, racial justice, immigrants' rights and lesbian and gay equality ? will also require increased attention and resources.
Romero said that his commitment to civil rights, civil liberties and social justice comes from his life experience. "My memories of discrimination, homophobia and poverty stand in sharp contrast to the dignity and love I got from my family," he said.
We are pleased to have the opportunity to hear his plans for the ACLU's future on May 4.
