We were honored to be joined last Thursday by leading civil liberties scholars and Arthur Garfield Hays’ grandson to unveil our latest plaque on Hays’ longtime former home at 24 East 10th Street, honoring the ACLU co-founder and attorney for some of the 20th century’s most consequential American legal cases. Hays is recognized for his trailblazing role in the Scopes Monkey Trial, the trials of Sacco and Vanzetti and the Scottsboro Boys, and for his ACLU brief in Brown v. Board of Education, establishing many of the foundations of civil liberties we enjoy today. A civil liberties program at NYU Law School is named for him and continues his legacy. 

This is our 29th plaque unveiling. Our plaque program has honored and marked the homes of local figures from Jane Jacobs to James Baldwin; Allen Ginsberg to Charles Mingus; Frank O’Hara to Frank Stella; and Martha Graham to Lorraine Hansberry, as well as historically significant sites such as the former NAACP headquarters, Julius’ Bar, and the Fillmore East. You can learn more about our plaque program and explore our other plaques here.