Call to Courage Tour Highlights

Across four cities, our 70th anniversary tour honored those who came before us and called on all Floridians to rise in defense of the principles embedded in our Constitution. The courage we celebrate is not just a relic of history—it’s what this moment demands.

Explore highlights and stories from our statewide celebration—where we came together in community and recommitted to a future where justice is real, lasting, and for all.

Seventy years ago, the ACLU of Florida was born out of resistance. It emerged in the shadows of a state-sanctioned assault on civil rights, when standing up for freedom came with real risk.

A Florida Legislative Investigative Committee fabricated an anti-communist frenzy to target integrationists and thwart the inevitable expansion of Brown v. Board’s promise – a promise that recognized separate was inherently unequal. Failing in its efforts to show that the Civil Rights Movement was “full of Communists,” the Johns Committee turned its efforts towards investigating and weeding out “suspected or admitted homosexuals.” For the sake of protecting “the American Way of Life,” the Committee employed a host of unconstitutional tactics like:

• Secret interrogations of students and faculty without due process or legal counsel
• Threats of expulsion, job loss, and criminal prosecution
• Entrapment, blackmail and forced confessions
• Surveillance and smear campaigns designed to shame, out, and silence dissenters

And still, courageous Floridians stood. For seven decades, we have remained rooted alongside the people of Florida, defending those who have been silenced, sidelined, and stripped of their rights.

Today, as civil liberties face renewed and calculated threats, we are meeting this moment with clarity, we are fighting with our convictions, and we are re-envisioning the future of our state alongside our communities. This is more than a commemoration – it is Florida’s call to courage.