American Civil Liberties Union -ACLU and my Father
The American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) helped my father. It was founded in 1920 by a group of forward thinkers to protect the individual’s rights guarenteed by the Constitution. Roger Baldwin was one of those people.
My father, Norman B. Levy was born that same year in New York State. He was the first born of Russian immigrants. I had grown up hearing that Norman had changed his name to Baldwin in order to get into college. I knew that Roger Baldwin and he had some kind of a relationship. What that relationship was, remained unclear to me.
A Life Well Lived
Sadly,my father passed in 2015 after a long life of success built on his educational opportunities. As for many of his generation,World War II interrupted his life. He had graduated from college before the war. My parents married before he shipped out for the South Seas. Upon return, he attended Stanford Business School on the G.I Bill. Then my parents settled in Palo Alto. They raised their family there while my father developed his real estate business.
How my Father came to Change his Name
A number of years ago, I finally asked my father exactly how it came to be that he changed his name. The details were not clear as to when the name change had exactly happened.
This is what my father told me. He was about 90 at the time. Thank goodness he had lived long enough for me to finally ask him.
At about age 18, Norman applied to the University of Rochester in New York. My father had always been a great student. He had skipped two grades. Skipping grades was common in those days. His Aunt Minnie had said that he could live with her in Rochester. But that school didn’t accept my father.
Disappointed, Norman asked Roger Baldwin why he thought he hadn’t gotten in. Roger said, ”Maybe it was because of your name, Levy.” There was a quota for Jews at that time at the universities. Like any 18 year old, Norman said,” Well, okay then I’ll change my name. What name should I take?” He asked Roger. Roger answered, “Any name. ” “Okay, then I’ll take your name, Baldwin” and he did.
Roger Baldwin and My Father
I had always heard that Norman and Roger Baldwin knew each other. When my father passed, I found quite a few letters that proved the friendship. The letters were only onesided of course, only being from Roger. However, it was clear that they knew each other quite well. They had great respect for each other.
Moreover, Roger seemed to have access to money that could be made available for scholastic purposes. He encouraged my father to take advantage of these funds. Roger seemed quite warm and free with his compliments of my father. Roger Baldwin visited our home about 1954.
Our Past was not Shared
I was the second child born, a baby boomer in 1950. Our family was not religious at all. My parents never spoke of their childhoods. As a teenager, when I asked about our family history. Where we had come from? The answer was usually, “Why do you want to know about that? It was not a good place. “
Yet, my father knew Yiddish and Hebrew. My mother always wrote to my grandfather in Yiddish even though he DID speak English fairly well. Now I realize that my experience is not that unusual for children of immigrants and that the parents were trying to protect us in the conformist 1950s.
The Unitarian Church
When I asked about church and religion, my father took me to the Unitarian Church. In junior high and high school,I was very active in their youth groups. I became a junior member. Much later I was married by a Unitarian minister. My uncle and his family were fairly religious. They went to the Jewish temple.
However,I had never understood where the Unitarian connection had come from.Yet, when I recently googled Roger Baldwin, it said that he was a Unitarian. That made sense. Just another way in which Roger Baldwin had postively influenced my father and my family.
The Rest of the Story
Instead of attending the University of Rochester, Norman went to Albany State Teachers College later renamed New York State University at Albany. That was where he met my mother, Louise. They shared 60 years together. So it all turned out fine. And of course, Norman and Louise named their son after Roger.
Although Roger Baldwin is not a blood relative, I feel that he is still part of my family. The ACLU and founding member,Roger Baldwin has a lasting affect on my Father and his family.
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/07/political-quilts2008-2014/
The ACLU supporting civil right and changing lives for over 100 years.
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