Anthony D. Romero | Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/","20200812061633","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1597212993"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic&display=swap" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">  <title>Anthony D. Romero | Academy of Achievement</title> <meta name="description" content="Anthony Romero had led the American Civil Liberties Union for only four days when the attacks of September 11, 2001 presented civil libertarians with their greatest challenge in decades. Since then, Romero and the ACLU have waged a continuous struggle in the nation's courts to ensure that the Constitution does not become a casualty of the war on terror. A son of Puerto Rican parents, and the first member of his family to graduate from high school, Romero earned law and public policy degrees at Stanford and Princeton. He is the sixth director to lead the ACLU since it was first founded, to combat the abuses of civil liberties that arose during the First World War. Anthony Romero has presided over the most explosive growth in the group's history, doubling its national staff and tripling its budget, enabling it to win significant court victories in defense of personal liberties, and restraining the warrantless surveillance of American citizens. He tells the story of this campaign in his book In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror."/> <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"/> <meta name="googlebot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <meta name="bingbot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Anthony D. Romero | Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">Anthony Romero had led the American Civil Liberties Union for only four days when the attacks of September 11, 2001 presented civil libertarians with their greatest challenge in decades. Since then, Romero and the ACLU have waged a continuous struggle in the nation's courts to ensure that the Constitution does not become a casualty of the war on terror.</p> <p class="inputText">A son of Puerto Rican parents, and the first member of his family to graduate from high school, Romero earned law and public policy degrees at Stanford and Princeton. He is the sixth director to lead the ACLU since it was first founded, to combat the abuses of civil liberties that arose during the First World War.</p> <p class="inputText">Anthony Romero has presided over the most explosive growth in the group's history, doubling its national staff and tripling its budget, enabling it to win significant court victories in defense of personal liberties, and restraining the warrantless surveillance of American citizens. He tells the story of this campaign in his book <i>In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror</i>.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2019-11-11T14:59:24+00:00"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/romero-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@achievers1961"/> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@achievers1961"/> <script type="application/ld+json" class="yoast-schema-graph">{"@context":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/#organization","name":"Academy of Achievement","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/","sameAs":["https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-academy-of-achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChe_87uh1H-NIMf3ndTjPFw","https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://twitter.com/achievers1961"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/12.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Academy of Achievement"},"image":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/#website","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/","name":"Academy of Achievement","description":"A museum of living history","publisher":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/search/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/romero-Feature-Image.jpg","width":2800,"height":1120},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/#webpage","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/","name":"Anthony D. 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role="document"> <div class="content"> <main class="main"> <div class="feature-area__container"> <header class="feature-area feature-area--has-image ratio-container ratio-container--feature"> <figure class="feature-box"> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image feature-area__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/romero-Feature-Image.jpg [(max-width:544px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/02/romero-Feature-Image-1400x560.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/02/romero-Feature-Image.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Anthony D. Romero</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Executive Director, ACLU</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-1726 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-activist careers-attorney"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/social-justice/id839300575?mt=13" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/new_social_JUSTICE_cover-MIKE-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/social-justice/id839300575?mt=13" target="_blank"> Download our free multi-touch iBook <i>Social Justice: Leadership Lessons</i> — for your Mac or iOS device on Apple Books </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0">The <i>Social Justice</i> iBook opens up the compelling, inspiring and selfless world of social justice, giving readers a better understanding of how empowering others, promoting equality and exposing injustice can change the very fabric of our society. </p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WhatItTakes_ROMERO-256-190x190.png" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">The law has been such a creative force for helping us understand what we should be, not just what we are.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">In Defense of Our America</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 9, 1965 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_8229" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8229" style="width: 999px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8229 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8229 size-full lazyload" alt="Demetrio and Coralie Romero with their son Anthony in New York City. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" width="999" height="1192" data-sizes="(max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024.jpg 999w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024-318x380.jpg 318w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024-637x760.jpg 637w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8229" class="wp-caption-text">Demetrio and Coralie Romero with their son, Anthony.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero was born in New York City, and spent his first years in a public housing project in the borough of the Bronx. His parents, Demetrio and Coralie Romero, had come to New York from the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, where neither had completed high school. Demetrio Romero worked as a houseman at a large Manhattan hotel and was repeatedly turned down for a more lucrative job as a banquet waiter there on the grounds that his English was not good enough, although it was in fact adequate for the job. With the assistance of his union’s attorney, Demetrio filed a grievance and eventually won his case, which led to more lucrative work for him and an improved standard of living for the family. The role the union’s attorney had played in improving the family’s life made a powerful impression on young Anthony, and he decided that he too would become an attorney and fight for the rights of the disenfranchised.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">With this change in their fortunes, the Romero family moved to suburban New Jersey, where young Anthony excelled in school and became the first member of his family to earn a diploma. He received a scholarship to Princeton University, completing his undergraduate degree at the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Following Princeton, he was awarded a second scholarship to Stanford Law School.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8224" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8224" style="width: 954px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8224 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8224 size-full lazyload" alt="After graduating from Princeton in 1987, Anthony Romero earned a scholarship to Stanford Law School. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" width="954" height="1269" data-sizes="(max-width: 954px) 100vw, 954px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029.jpg 954w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029-286x380.jpg 286w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029-571x760.jpg 571w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8224" class="wp-caption-text">After graduating from Princeton in 1987, Anthony Romero earned a scholarship to Stanford Law School.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">After law school, Romero quickly earned a reputation as a gifted attorney with a commitment to the public interest. For nine years, he worked as Program Officer for Civil Rights and Racial Justice at the Ford Foundation — ultimately serving as the foundation’s Global Director for Human Rights and International Cooperation. In this capacity, he oversaw grants of $100 million a year to human rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The ACLU was originally founded to combat the abuses of civil liberties that arose during the First World War. In addition to the Union’s first Executive Director, Roger Baldwin, the founders included Helen Keller. In the following decades, the organization championed free speech and the rights of criminal defendants, supported the rights of union members, combated racial segregation and pursued miscarriages of justice such as the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. The ACLU provides legal representation to plaintiffs filing suit against the government, and to criminal defendants whose rights have been violated. It also files “friend of the court” (<i>amicus curiae</i>) briefs addressing specific legal questions in cases where the parties already have direct representation.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 2001, when the previous executive director of the ACLU stepped down, he recommended Anthony Romero for the job, and in 2001, Romero became the sixth person to head the 80-year-old organization. He is both the first Latino and the first openly gay man to hold this post. As it happened, his first day on the job was September 4, 2001.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8239" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8239" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8239 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8239 size-full lazyload" alt="Anthony Romero, left, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, speaks to reporters as Khaled El-Masri, second from left, listens outside Federal Court, after a hearing before the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006, in Richmond, Va. El-Masri wants the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate his lawsuit alleging human rights and due process violations by former CIA director George Tenet and others. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)" width="2280" height="1593" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351-380x266.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351-760x531.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8239" class="wp-caption-text">Anthony Romero, left, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, speaks to reporters as Khaled El-Masri, second from left, listens outside Federal Court, after a hearing before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, November 28, 2006, in Richmond, Virginia. El-Masri wants the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate his lawsuit alleging human rights and due process violations by former CIA Director George Tenet and others. (AP)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">One week later, agents of the Al Qaeda terror network crashed airliners into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, as well as the Pentagon, home of the Department of Defense, outside Washington, D.C. The attacks killed thousands of Americans and provoked the administration of President George W. Bush to declare an all-out “war on terror.” Congress quickly passed the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act of 2001. A Department of Homeland Security was created, combining existing agencies and adding a new one, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The National Security Administration (NSA) was given expanded powers to conduct surveillance on American citizens without receiving the customary warrants from a criminal court. These powers came to include the monitoring of phone lines and Internet traffic.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8238" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8238" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8238 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8238 size-full lazyload" alt="Anthony Romero meets with U.S. armed service personnel at Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Courtesy of ACLU)" width="2280" height="1712" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226-380x285.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226-760x571.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8238" class="wp-caption-text">Anthony D. Romero meets with U.S. armed service personnel at Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (ACLU)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan, where the Taliban regime had given Al Qaeda a safe haven, suspected terrorists captured there and elsewhere were transported to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For civil libertarians this was particularly troubling, as the prisoners were offered neither the protections prescribed for prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, nor those afforded criminal defendants under the U.S. Constitution. Instead the Bush administration created a new form of military tribunal to try the suspects, but even these trials were delayed indefinitely in many cases. Some terror suspects were subjected to so-called “enhanced interrogation” methods, including waterboarding, a practice the U.S. had previously regarded as torture. In a practice known as “extraordinary rendition,” foreign nationals detained overseas were in some cases transferred to the custody of other countries, where torture was more permissible, or to CIA “black site” prisons outside of the United States.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8237" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8237" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8237 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8237 size-full lazyload" alt="ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero speaks to journalists at the U.S. military complex Camp Justice at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the pretrial session for accused terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants on charges related to the attacks of September 11, 2001. (© Mandel Ngan/Pool/Reuters/Corbis)" width="2280" height="1556" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984-380x259.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984-760x519.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8237" class="wp-caption-text">ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero speaking to journalists at the U.S. military complex Camp Justice at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the pre-trial session for accused terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants on charges related to the attacks of September 11, 2001. (© Mandel Ngan/Pool/Reuters/Corbis)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">For many Americans, these measures appeared to threaten the very liberty the United States was founded to protect. Romero and the ACLU went into action, to ensure that the struggle to preserve America’s freedoms did not end by destroying them. The ACLU filed suits against the NSA’s domestic spying program, and a class-action suit against the demonstrably inaccurate “no-fly” lists of suspected terrorists employed by the TSA.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8247" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8247" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8247 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8247 size-full lazyload" alt="Plaintiff Edith Windsor speaks to the media alongside attorney Roberta Kaplan (front center), attorney James Esseks (second from right) and ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero (at right), outside the U.S. Supreme Court following oral arguments in Windsor's case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), in Washington D.C. (© Michael Reynolds/EPA/CORBIS) " width="2280" height="1518" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8247" class="wp-caption-text">Plaintiff Edith Windsor speaks to the media alongside attorney Roberta Kaplan, attorney James Esseks and ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero, outside the U.S. Supreme Court following oral arguments in Windsor’s case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), in Washington D.C. (Photo: Michael Reynolds/CORBIS)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">ACLU membership had held steady at around 300,000 for many years before September 11; under Romero’s leadership it quickly grew to 550,000. By 2007, the group’s annual budget was more than twice that of 2001, and its assets ultimately tripled. The ACLU maintains 53 local affiliate offices: three in California, one each in the other 49 states and Puerto Rico. When Romero took office, the local affiliates received $6.5 million annually from the national office; by 2007 that figure had grown to $31 million. Romero assigned a full-time attorney in each state for the first time. This growth enabled the organization to expand its activities on many fronts, including racial justice, religious freedom, privacy rights, reproductive freedom, and gay and lesbian rights. Romero created a new human rights program within the ACLU, and a division dedicated to privacy issues arising from new surveillance technology, including data mining and the collection of genetic data.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8234" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8234" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8234 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8234 size-full lazyload" alt="Anthony Romero meets with student delegates of the Academy of Achievement at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa. " width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8234" class="wp-caption-text">ACLU Director Anthony D. Romero with several student delegates during a break in the Academy of Achievement symposium at the Singita Sabi Sands Reserve during the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa.</figcaption></figure> <p>Through the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU gained the release of more than 100,000 pages of government documents relating to torture and other abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. The ACLU mounted a successful court challenge to Section 505 of the Patriot Act, which gave the FBI power to obtain sensitive records without judicial approval, and won its case, forcing the FBI to open the files it had kept on antiwar groups — and on the ACLU itself.</p> <figure id="attachment_8642" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8642" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8642 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8642 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8642" class="wp-caption-text">ACLU Director Anthony Romero and the student delegates enjoying a spontaneous late-night dance at the Ebony Lodge at the Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve during the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In addition to its ongoing cases with the federal government over surveillance and detention issues, the contemporary ACLU opposes the death penalty, supports same-sex marriage and the right of gay couples to adopt, supports access to birth control and abortion, and opposes government preference for religion over non-religion. The ACLU won a settlement with the federal government in <i>Collins v. United States</i>, securing back pay for gay members of the military discharged under the now-abandoned “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It represented same-sex couples in California who sued successfully to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage, and won a historic victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in the federal recognition of gay marriages.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8251" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8251" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8251 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8251 size-full lazyload" alt="Archbishop Desmond Tutu presents Anthony Romero with the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. " width="2280" height="1944" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405-380x324.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405-760x648.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8251" class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member Archbishop Desmond Tutu presenting Anthony Romero with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in Cape Town, South Africa.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Under Romero’s leadership, as in earlier times, the ACLU’s commitment to the Bill of Rights has allied it with more conservative figures and causes as well. The ACLU produced a brief in support of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh when the State of Florida seized his private medical records in a drug abuse investigation. The ACLU has also represented the Second Amendment Foundation over a Washington State library system’s attempt to block access to gun-related Internet sites, and has assisted gun owners in recovering firearms confiscated by law enforcement agencies. While the ACLU advocates increased public funding of political campaigns, it also filed an <i>amicus</i> brief in the <i>Citizens United</i> case, supporting unrestricted independent expenditures by corporations and other associations as a form of constitutionally protected political speech.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_44966" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44966" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-44966 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WP-ROMERO-LondonSummit_0359-2017.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-44966 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WP-ROMERO-LondonSummit_0359-2017.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WP-ROMERO-LondonSummit_0359-2017-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WP-ROMERO-LondonSummit_0359-2017-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WP-ROMERO-LondonSummit_0359-2017.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-44966" class="wp-caption-text">2017: Anthony Romero addressing the Academy delegates and members at a symposium during the American Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit, held at Claridge’s Hotel in London.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 2005, <i>TIME</i> magazine named Anthony Romero one of the “25 Most Influential Hispanic Americans.” He recounted his and the ACLU’s ongoing struggles in his 2007 book <i>In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror</i>. </span></p> <figure id="attachment_63454" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-63454" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-63454 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-63454 lazyload" alt="Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, at the 2019 International Achievement Summit." width="2280" height="1824" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676.jpg 2280w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676-380x304.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676-760x608.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-63454" class="wp-caption-text">Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, at the 2019 International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In recent years, the ACLU has renewed its support for women’s reproductive rights. Anthony Romero spoke at the 2008 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., and</span> received the 2011 Margaret Sanger Award given by Planned Parenthood “to recognize leadership, excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights movement.”  The ACLU experienced an unprecedented surge of public interest following the 2016 presidential election, receiving $7.2 million in donations in the five days after election day.</p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2009 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.attorney">Attorney</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.activist">Activist</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 9, 1965 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">Anthony Romero had led the American Civil Liberties Union for only four days when the attacks of September 11, 2001 presented civil libertarians with their greatest challenge in decades. Since then, Romero and the ACLU have waged a continuous struggle in the nation’s courts to ensure that the Constitution does not become a casualty of the war on terror.</p> <p class="inputText">A son of Puerto Rican parents, and the first member of his family to graduate from high school, Romero earned law and public policy degrees at Stanford and Princeton. He is the sixth director to lead the ACLU since it was first founded, to combat the abuses of civil liberties that arose during the First World War.</p> <p class="inputText">Anthony Romero has presided over the most explosive growth in the group’s history, doubling its national staff and tripling its budget, enabling it to win significant court victories in defense of personal liberties, and restraining the warrantless surveillance of American citizens. He tells the story of this campaign in his book <i>In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror</i>.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/SebXAUrcLg8?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=2183&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_16_48_18.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_16_48_18.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">In Defense of Our America</h2> <div class="sans-2">Washington, D.C.</div> <div class="sans-2">October 26, 2012</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When did you first know what you wanted to do, that you were interested in civil rights, human rights, that this was the field you wanted to get involved in? What led you there?</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/4MjoIBUPSSg?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=65&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_34_47_03.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_34_47_03.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Anthony Romero: From when I was a little boy, I always knew I wanted to be an attorney. I don’t know why. There is no attorney in my family.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My father was a waiter and my mother stayed at home and I’m the first of my family to finish high school.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But somehow I always got it in my mind that I would be a lawyer.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Perhaps it was because I was argumentative, because I always spoke my mind, perhaps because I never really understood the rules of the nuns in Catholic school, was always questioning them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Over time it just kind of stuck with me, that I would be a lawyer.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Later on in life I understood the role the law would play in social justice and that we would be change agents for people. I saw that it could make a real difference in people’s lives, and that’s really where I understood the importance of being an attorney for issues, for causes, for people, for ideals.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So I don’t know, maybe it was in my DNA from the beginning, but I always knew I wanted to be an advocate for change.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Was there anybody who inspired you as a young person?</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/EItAb8OIfQI?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_20_57_06.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_20_57_06.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/the-american-dream/">The American Dream</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Anthony Romero: The folks who inspired me the most were my parents.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My father spoke very poor English, finished the fourth grade in Puerto Rico.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My mother speaks great English, but is too shy to speak it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But yet they always made me believe that I could make a difference, and that I could achieve things that they could not.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And there was nothing that was not attainable for me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So they gave me enormous love and support and push and drive, and I would not be here today without my mom and my dad.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_8230" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8230" style="width: 1706px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8230 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8230 size-full lazyload" alt="Coralie and Demetrio Romero, parents of Anthony. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" width="1706" height="1117" data-sizes="(max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023.jpg 1706w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023-760x498.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8230" class="wp-caption-text">Coralie and Demetrio Romero, parents of Anthony, at home in New York City. (Photo courtesy of Anthony Romero)</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/KWB5BVPMqmQ?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=113&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_17_25_08.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_17_25_08.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">There was a young lawyer, who I never met, who inspired me about the role of lawyers, and he was a lawyer in my father’s labor union.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My father, first, was a janitor at a hotel. He worked at the Warwick Hotel on 54th and Sixth in New York City, and he would help clean up the rooms and vacuum the floors and break down the tables. He wanted to become a waiter, and he applied for a waiter job because a waiter was a promotion, much more money.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And he was initially turned down from the job.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He was told that his English wasn’t good enough, which he didn’t buy, because when he went to become a banquet waiter, as he would say, “Everybody gets chicken. It’s coffee or tea.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So he thought that the reason they gave him was a ruse.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So he went to a union lawyer — Vito Pitta was his name — who took on my dad’s case and they filed some type of grievance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was young.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And my dad got the job, ultimately.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Several years later, almost a decade later, I would work in the same hotel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I would work there when I was an undergraduate in Princeton, and I would see that the banquet waiters were also immigrants. They were Russians and Greeks and Germans and Italians, and they had thick accents.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But my father was the first Hispanic waiter at the Warwick Hotel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That one lawyer who took my dad’s case fundamentally changed our lives.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We left the public housing projects in the Bronx.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My father bought a new car, my mother got a new living room set.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We moved out to the suburban part of New Jersey, where life was very different than the public housing projects of the Bronx.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I got to do well in school.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I got my first bicycle.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Just because of this one lawyer’s ability to champion wrong, to make sure that a wrong was made right, our lives fundamentally changed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And in that one moment, I understood the role that a lawyer could play in people’s lives, and perhaps that was my first inspiration to be a lawyer for doing good.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_8241" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8241" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8241 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8241 size-full lazyload" alt="Anthony Romero took charge of the American Civil Liberties Union in September 2001, and was immediately plunged into controversy. (Courtesy of ACLU) " width="2000" height="1318" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829.jpg 2000w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20200812061633im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829-760x501.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-8241" class="wp-caption-text">Anthony D. Romero took charge of the ACLU in September 2001, and was immediately plunged into controversy.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What did your parents think when you told them what you wanted to do?</b></span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200812061633if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/5TQnq34VHPs?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=0&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_15_05_00.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Romero-Anthony-2012-MasterEdit.00_15_05_00.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Anthony Romero: My parents were always supportive. My parents always believed that I could be whatever I wanted to be. I remember when I first told my father I wanted to go to Princeton or Yale, and I chose Princeton, he asked me how much would the tuition cost and I would say, “Twenty-eight thousand dollars, <i>Papi</i>.” And he said, “That’s more than I make in a year!” He didn’t know about financial aid. He didn’t know that I would get loans, he didn’t know that there were scholarships. But my parents were always very supportive. When I said I wanted to do something, they said, “Okay, try.” And they never stopped me, in fact, they always encouraged me. So when I told them I wanted to be a lawyer, I wanted to go to an Ivy League school, and I wanted to serve the public interest, they were always very supportive. When I finished law school, and my father asked me what would my first salary be as a full-time attorney, and I told him it would be about $32,000 dollars a year, he smiled at me and he said, “Now I make more money than that.” And I said, “Yeah, but I’m learning how to change the world, Dad.” And he always would be a bit chagrined. My sister is a social worker, and I always worked in the public service sector, and my father always would say, “What did I do wrong? Why did none of these kids go out and make a lot of money?” And we’d always say back to him, “Dad, you did it right. You taught us our values. You taught us to make a difference in the world.” So they were always very supportive and loving.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: The struggle for civil rights and civil liberties is really a very basic one. It’s one we all understand. We have the right to live with dignity. Each of us — regardless of who we are, or what background we come from, or what religion or what race — have a right to determine how we think about the world, what we say, whom we love, who we associate ourselves with. It’s the ability to tap into that most beautiful part of the human experience, of saying, “I decide what I want to be and what I do and what I say and what I think.” We all feel that, we all feel the sense of personality, of individuality, and the idea then that there are barriers that impede our ability to live our lives fully, there are barriers that impede our ability to be all we can be. That’s what we do, we remove the barriers, we remove the blocks. It’s about taking every person whose life is precious and making sure that they can make the most of it as they wish. That’s, in the end, what we do every day.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What do you find to be the most productive way to go about solving problems?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: I think the most productive way of solving problems is to hear all sides, that you have to hear different points of view. That if you only listen to the viewpoints that you agree with, you get half the picture. That’s why the ACLU is so significant. It’s an organization that believes in the freedom of speech, and that democracy can be a great many things, but it can never be a quiet business. And the reason why that is, is because we want everyone to be able to access all different viewpoints, all different analysis, and then you sort out how you think about something, what you think. That’s very personal to the person. I think in the end, whenever you tackle a problem, whether it’s at the political level or at the personal level, the societal level, you have to hear the different viewpoints. You have to consider what different people will say. Sometimes you learn more from your critics than you do your allies, and that is an essential part of what we do every day. We try to take apart a very complex issue, to try and understand why our opponents think the way they do, and why we think the way we do, and how best to bring about an understanding of these issues. I think we have to ask the tough questions, you have to kick the tires. You can’t take anything for a sacred cow. You have to be willing to consider the alternatives, and then you make up your mind.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How do you evaluate competing points of view? How do you decide which side you are going to come down on, or how you’re going to argue?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: In law, it’s pretty easy to consider different points of view. That’s our job. We have to hear the opposing side and we have to respond to it. When we hear arguments, either for or against a particular issue, or for or against a particular case, we have to make up our minds as to what we think makes sense.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I think it’s also important to have your ear to the ground in terms of how people think and feel about a particular issue. Lawyers can be very esoteric, can be very abstract, some of these issues. You have to hear how people think about it, how they experience it in their everyday lives. Then you have to be able to communicate that to people, because you can win in courts, and you can win in Congress, but if you lose in the court of public opinion, you lose the battle. That is why it is so essential for us to talk about the work we do, why we do the work we do, what we are hoping to accomplish, and being able to tell the story. Good lawyering is great storytelling. There’s a good guy — that’s us. There’s a bad guy, the opponent. There is some type of orbiting force, a court, good versus evil. There is a denouement, there is a resolution. Either the good guys win or the bad guys win, and then we get to fight another day. So if you can tell the narrative in such a way that you tell people why this is important, and help them think through, “Well, why would this matter to me? If I am not that person, why would I care?” But the fact is that the American public, we are a very fair people. We are a good-hearted people, we are an altruistic people. We are an idealistic nation. We believe it can always be better. That’s the promise of this country. That’s the great history that we have come through. So you can appeal to the best of people’s intentions, the best of their heartstrings, and you give them a role to play. You give them a reason to care, you give them a role to play. You give them a reason to think that the world can be better and different. Then you make change and then you make momentum.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How do you conceive of fairness or justice? Has your conception evolved over time?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: Fairness is something we feel, whether we’re in the supermarket and someone tries to cut in front of us in line, or whether we’re trying to make sure that our kids get their fair shake at school if a teacher is being unfair or punishing our kids. We all feel it. We all know that when we feel the victim of unfairness. We think it’s awful, we think it’s wrong. In a lot of respects, what you’re tapping into is that moral compass that each of us has. You’re trying to help people understand how their own personal moral compass affects other people, and that there has got to be a societal moral compass.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Each of us feels fairness in a very personal way. We feel it in our everyday lives. And the idea of our work is to make sure that people understand the idea that — not just their own personal fairness, but what is fair for other people? A decision I make for myself may be the right one for me, but may be the wrong one for another person. Is it fair for me to impose my decision onto someone else’s life? So part of what we have to do is we have to help people understand how it is deeply personal, the work we do, but how it’s relevant for everyone. There can’t be one size fits all for everyone.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Also, fairness evolves. Our notion of fairness in America is very much evolved, in the beginning. We were a great democracy built on fighting the tyranny of a king. The people who had their rights were white propertied men. And over more than two centuries that “rights of the citizen” would evolve to include women, to include blacks, to include different groups that were not ever part of the initial social compact. So the idea of fairness is one that continues to evolve as our society continues to evolve, as our sense of possibility continues to evolve. It’s not a static viewpoint. I think that’s the beauty of this work, it’s just that we will never be done with it. We <i>should</i> never be done with it. For as long as we have an America, we’re going to need an ACLU. We’re going to need lawyers who are going to push the boundaries of what fairness and equality and dignity really mean in society at the time. And that’s the work we do, in and out, every day of our life.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Do you think that there are things that we need to do, as a society, to reaffirm or rehabilitate that social compact? Do we do enough to maintain it among ourselves?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: I think what is terribly sad is that the notion of the social compact is fundamentally breaking down in politics. Politics has become so polarized. There are the winners and the losers, and there is not an understanding of the importance of compromise in politics. Yet the social compact requires us to talk about compromise, to talk about the need for meeting everyone else halfway, to understanding why these issues may be important for someone else, even if they are not relevant for us. I think each of us is taught certain key aspects of the social compact when we grow up. I grew up in a very Catholic household. The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That’s what this is about: the ability to be treated fairly, to treat others the way you would want them to treat you if the shoe were on the other foot.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I think we have to keep tapping into those basic notions of what is fair, of what is right, what is good, what should be a part of the social compact. Sometimes we attach it to laws and regulations or politics or political parties, and that is often the wrong source. Because those are always up for grabs and up for debate, or being put down or denigrated. But when you’re tapping into the best of the human spirit, “Why is this important? Why is it important that we allow people to be involved in loving, committed relationships recognized by the law?” Even if I’m very heavily religious, and I don’t believe that I would want my kid to be gay or marry another same-sex partner, as an American I want the law to recognize people’s decisions, and to value their decisions and to value their rights. And to make sure that when you have a committed loving couple that made the decisions for themselves, that the law should not treat them like strangers. That they should have the full protections of the law, just like my mom and dad did. When we make those arguments that way — and not political arguments, and not arguments that deal with the partisan politics — but deal with the very basic nucleus of why is this right. Even if it’s not right for you, is it right for someone else? If it might be right for someone else, then is it right for you not to let that other person live life that way? I think that’s the conversation we need to have more and more.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>In making these arguments, communicating to others, is there a role for creativity?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: Lawyers are not normally known as being creative people. But you know what? We are, we are. We are about creating rights and creating opportunities where they don’t exist. We are about looking at the most serious systemic structural barriers and trying to find a solution. We are about envisioning a world not that is, but that should be. So when you look at a social problem and you say, “Okay, why are the schools delivering such poor educational outcomes for our kids?” And as a lawyer you come in and say, “Okay, how are we going to solve it? How do we make sure that there is more money going to the poor classrooms and that the teachers are better trained, that there are better resources for students, that we equalize between the rich schools and the poor schools?” You have to approach this with creativity. You have to approach this with a sense of possibility.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This is not just about counting the numbers that are on the ledger; this is about looking at the world and seeing what it is and seeing what it should be. And then you have to figure out creative ways of getting there, and sometimes you have to make it up, you have to try it. Who would ever have guessed that the law would ever recognize the rights of women? When the ACLU was founded in 1920, women didn’t have the right to vote. Blacks were second-class citizens by rule of law. There was no discussion of the rights of gay people. Gay people existed, obviously, but there was no discussion of the rights of gay people. The law has been such a creative force for helping us understand what we <i>should</i> be, not just what we <i>are</i>, not the reasons why we are stuck in a place, but to think about the ways in which we could overcome and supersede our challenges and our difficulties. So the best lawyers are creative ones. They are saying, “Okay, this is what it is. What <i>should</i> it be, and how do I convince someone to get us there?” And you think of the different ways you can do it. And sometimes you lose, sometimes you fail. Sometimes you have to fail to be able to come back and fight the battle another day. But the creativity is all about the human existence. And if we lose sight of the fact that creativity is an essential part of what each of us does, then why live?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What kinds of setbacks have you had along the way in pursuing the issues that have mattered to you, and what did you learn from those setbacks?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: I think about our work at the ACLU almost like a baseball team. I have never played baseball, but I watch it, and a good baseball player, if he’s hitting three times out of ten up at bat, it’s a good batting average. So I try to think about it that way: three times out of ten we win. We win more than that usually. The fact is that we have to think about the impact of it long-term. We have failed seven times up at bat, and we strike out, and I think, “How can I learn from that failure? What went wrong? What could I have done differently?” You have to take it apart to understand your failures. Failures teach you much more than your successes. Sometimes it is better just to pause on a setback, on a failure, on a screw-up, and say, “What did I learn from this?” You learn how to do it better and you recommit yourself.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I am privileged to represent an organization that will be here forever. It’s a permanent fixture in the American political landscape. We’ve been here for 92 years. We have outlived every president since the early 20th century. We have sued them all. The fact is, as long as we have a constitution, as long as we have the United States of America, we’re going to need an ACLU to defend the rights of all people, and we’re going to be there forever. We can lose a case, like <i>Bowers v. Hardwick</i> in 1986, where the rights of a gay couple to have consensual sex in the privacy of their bedroom was — that was being criminalized and that statute was being upheld by the Supreme Court — until today, where the courts are on the verge of recognizing full equality for gay and lesbian people. You have to lose in ’86 to win in 2012. The fact is, this organization is going to be around in 2022, ’32, ’42. I’ll be old or dead, but I know that the spirit of this work will continue. That is what gives me courage, that even when I lose today, we know we’re going to be back in there at some other point, pushing the envelope and making it right at some other point in the future.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How is failure a good teacher? How is it that you can learn more from your failures than your successes?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: The failures teach you what you could have done differently, what you didn’t anticipate, what you misjudged, how worthy your opponents are. The successes? We can learn from them too. We can learn the importance of celebrating successes. Sometimes we don’t stop enough to smell the roses when we win, and we’re off to the next battle. But with failures, you have to sit with it, you have to unpack it. Why didn’t this go down very well? What could we have done differently? If we could do a rewind, how would I play back the tape differently? It’s an essential part of what we do to make social change, to understand the failures in one context so you can succeed at some later point, and make sure you don’t repeat the same failures.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If we don’t learn from our failures, then we’re doomed to create them over and over again. And what’s the point of that? We want to win. So if you fail once, take the time out to learn. Take the time out to ask the questions, take the time out to be analytic and self-critical. All of us have failed. I mean — Christ! I have. Today, I have failed more than I would like to imagine on a couple things. Yet there are moments when you say, “Okay, I can do better.” We have to focus on the idea that it’s progress, the idea that we can make a difference. I think there’s also a bit of humanity in it, there is a bit of humility in it. That if we don’t ever learn from our failures and don’t recognize that we’re going to fail, then we have an overblown sense of who we are. That’s not very good, because arrogance is what comes before the fall. So I think it’s important to approach this work with optimism, with energy, with creativity, with tenacity, with a sense of humor. Oh God, if we stop laughing, that’s really a sorry state of affairs. And a willingness to learn from one’s mistakes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>One of the issues that comes up frequently these days is privacy, because the world of social media is transforming our understanding of privacy. What do you see as the challenges and issues for protecting privacy in the 21st century? Is social media transforming the privacy landscape?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: The notion of privacy is one that is very important to the American people. It goes to the beginning, the idea that the man or woman is the sovereign over his or her castle. The idea that the colonists were very clear that the government couldn’t force their way into their homes, into their lives. And that we understood the importance of having that sanctity of that private space. That’s why there are certain key things about the Fourth Amendment, the protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, and that the government can only force you to quarter soldiers in times of war. Very clear parameters, like “Thou shall not cross this line…” the private line. Now that has evolved over time, and now it’s not just homes, but it’s actually our cars, and it’s actually the Web and the Internet, financial records or medical records. I still think that there is a part of it that we understand, that the right to privacy is the right to be left alone, that you don’t want the government screwing around in your private affairs. And that we understand that if government gets too far into the private affairs of a person, that becomes a very caustic dynamic for a society. That part of the reason why we have great individuality, great creativity, great entrepreneurs, great entertainers, great writers, is because we don’t countenance unwarranted intrusions into our personal sphere.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">How we adapt that to the world of the Internet is critically important. For a lot of people, the Internet now is a way that they communicate with their loved ones, with their family members, with their employees, with their colleagues, with the world. Making sure that the law catches up to the way in which we are living our lives, and making sure that we have the same protections over the Internet that we had over our houses, and that the government shouldn’t conduct an unreasonable search and seizure of our inbox on AOL just as it wouldn’t conduct an unreasonable search or seizure of our home. There’s a lot of catching up to do. It’s interesting, because a lot of young people see the communications technology as an essential part of their lives. It’s who they are: “My Facebook page… My Twitter account…” It’s funny, because I grew up in a time when the Internet didn’t exist. I tell that to a lot of interns. I tell them, “When I was in college, your age, there was no Internet.” And they look at you like you’re prehistoric, like a dinosaur. They are never separated from their iPad or from their smart phone. So they see it as an extension of themselves. I don’t know if enough young people really understand the ways in which some of their private expressions — their own personal lives, and their thoughts and their aspirations — could be open for interception by the government, could be open for interception by the private sector. There are two different conceptions of privacy, though: when you deal with the private sector and when you deal with the government.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There’s a huge concern over whether or not these private corporations that amass all of our pictures, all of our text messages, all of our e-mails, whether they should be able to own that data as a way to make money off of our personal communications. That raises very serious concerns. Because I sent an e-mail to someone doesn’t mean I want AOL to be able to read my e-mail and then pitch me a product in the next pop-up ad. But it’s also really quite different with the government, because when the government intercepts our communications, only the government has the ability to take away the most fundamental liberties. Only the government can take away my money. Only the government can take away my liberty. Google can’t imprison me, and Google can’t seize my bank account. The government, however, can. And that’s why our greatest concern is when the government begins to amass data, sometimes collected by the private sector, that can be used against the very individuals who are unsuspecting about certain communications, or certain e-mails. That raises enormous concerns for us as a society. There are moments when you want to make sure that the government just leaves you alone. For a lot of people concerned about privacy, it’s clear why we want to keep that information private.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It seems some people today aren’t really concerned about the right to privacy, or they don’t see how the issue affects them.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">A lot of people don’t think about the right to privacy. They say, “Well, I’ve done nothing wrong, why do I care?” It’s not like we’ve done anything wrong, but does each of us want to be judged by the worst statement or the worst action on our worst day? Does each of us want to have stuff that we live to regret put in the hands of someone else? When I answered my mom in an impertinent way, and I’m not really giving her the love or respect she deserves, do I want that irreverence and that childishness to be in the hands of another person? Do I want another person to be able to judge by the wrong thing I said at the wrong moment to a great mom? It’s not that we’ve done anything wrong, it’s the fact that some of these things are inherently personal. So if we see them as personal, we want society to treat them as personal. That’s why we have to put in place protections, to make sure that what I say to you here is as protected as it is when I send you an e-mail.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The government can’t come barging into this door and listen to our conversation without a warrant. They can’t do that. We’re not doing anything wrong. You need to have probable cause. You need to have the judge sign the warrant. If they’re going to barge into this room, you’re going to have to show me why they have a right to intervene in our nice little <i>tête à tête</i>. Well, why should it be different on an e-mail? If I’m sending you an e-mail, why should the government be able to just intercept it without judicial review? Why should my communications to you be open game for anyone else? A different medium, same words. That’s why we have to catch up with these protections. Privacy is so essential, it’s about the person. The right to be private is the right to be who you are. It’s the right to think what you want, to say what you want. The right to be right, the right to be wrong. The right to be a magnanimous individual, the right to be a jerk. So the ability to live a life of privacy is the ability to live life in its fullness. If we don’t have the right to privacy, then our ability to live life fully, without anyone looking over our shoulder or worrying about someone following us or tracking us, that gets jeopardized.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Where do you think your greatest education took place? Was it at Princeton or law school, or was it afterwards? Or were these fundamentally different experiences?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: I’ve been lucky that I’ve been trained at some of the best schools in America. I’ve gone to Princeton, I’ve gone to Stanford, I had some great teachers in high school. So I love our educational system, and I think that teachers in public schools taught me enormous amounts, and teachers in private universities and private schools taught me enormous amounts. But I have learned in life. I’ve learned on the street, I’ve learned talking to people. It’s the conversations you remember, it’s the people who make you stop and think differently about something. It’s less the classes I took in college and more about the late night conversations or debates about the world that I remember. It’s the conversations you have with people who are struggling in their lives. That one thought from a taxicab driver that just kind of sticks with you and makes you think differently. Or talking to someone who’s about to lose their home and finds themselves in eviction proceedings. Or talking to someone on death row, and understanding how they still find meaning in their life, and why it is important to safeguard the sanctity of life, that life is precious. That there’s even a sense of the human spirit even for people on death row. It’s not the same thing to be on death row as to be executed — there is life, there’s thought. So I’ve learned most from my interactions with the people, conversations with people, traveling overseas, little interactions. Arguments are sometimes places you can learn. You can learn how to be wrong, you can learn how to apologize. So I think life is an education. I think the schools of higher learning and the public schools and the private schools are great, but they’re only training ground for the real education, which is living, which is life, which is the beauty of walking outside a door and confronting something new and unexpected and learning how to adapt to it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What does the American Dream mean to you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: The American Dream is about you deciding what it is you want with your life. It’s about seeing all the potential. It’s about making very personal decisions over how we’re going to spend our lives and how we’re going to think about the world. It’s about having full, unfettered ability to think about what we care about and what we do. And of course, there are limits over our ability to affect other individuals, but it’s the idea that the person is sovereign over his or her own body, and that anything is possible. The American Dream gets described as someone who comes from humble beginnings and makes it to the top. And I’ve been lucky in the fact that I started out from a humble background, with great family, and Lord knows I never imagined I would be here talking with you today. So having gone to the best schools, and leading a remarkable organization like the one I lead, is living the American Dream. But the American Dream is every day. The American Dream is being able to walk outside your door and not worry about government surveillance, not to worry about where the next paycheck comes, to be able to think about the potential, the possibility, the learning. So the American Dream is all about possibility. It’s about dreaming. That’s why it’s called the dream. It’s the American Dream, it’s not “the American Promise,” it’s the American Dream. What do you dare dream? What can you imagine in your mind’s eye? What will you do? You can daydream. You can live the dream. You can act the dream. You can make the dream come true. And it’s so much greater than anything we’ve ever been able to describe. It’s not about the next good job, it’s not about the next promotion, it’s not about the next fancy car. The American Dream is about potential of the human spirit, that anyone can do it. That even the most humble among us have a lot to offer and contribute and can dream.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Where would you like to see this country in 15 or 25 years, and where are you worried that we actually might be in 15 to 25 years, as opposed to what you would like to see?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Anthony Romero: I worry about America getting cynical on its own promise. That the land of opportunity, that now maybe we don’t believe in that as much. And the land of possibility is one where there’s possibility for some, but not for all. And that’s not the America we started out creating. I worry that we will accept things like poverty or injustice or discrimination or bigotry as just an ordinary part of life. “That’s the way it is, that’s the way we roll.” That cynicism is enormously frightening. That cynicism would eat away at any ability to make a difference. That cynicism would impede our ability to take the next step forward. This was a country that believed in all potential. We believed that we could fight against the most powerful imperial power, England, and win. We believed we could expand our way throughout the entire northern continent, and we did. We believed we could put a man on the moon. We believed we could find cures to diseases that would strike down my grandparents, and we did. There was nothing that seemed impossible to America at some point. Now there are issues that we think are just impossible to solve. “Poverty? Well that’s just a part of everyday life. Bigotry? Discrimination? Injustice? That’s the way people are.” That resignation, that acceptance of the status quo betrays the American Dream in ways that will stunt our growth. That’s what I most worry about.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I think there is a certain level of cynicism, certainly in our politics. Our politicians too often talk about the <i>realpolitik</i> of making politics. “That’s just the way it is, nothing we can do to change it.” That we have to worry about the folks who can succeed, and focus less on the folks who can’t. I think part of what we have to do is to recommit ourselves, that each and every single person in America is a precious person, whether they are an immigrant or a citizen, whether a woman or a man, whether they are gay or straight, whether they are physically able or disabled. That there is a preciousness of the human existence and that we all have a responsibility to cultivate that in each other, that we are the farmers of that American Dream. That it’s not enough about me growing my own little crop right here, that I am responsible for making sure that the crops of my neighbors grow. That’s the promise of America. And <i>that</i> you hear less and less. <i>That</i> you hear less and less in politics. <i>That</i> you hear in families. <i>That</i> you hear among friends. <i>That</i> you hear in local communities. But we really don’t talk about the possible. We don’t ever talk about tackling the impossible. We don’t ever stretch our sights over what it is that we should accomplish, what makes us feel good.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">At the end of the day, America is about a great many things. We are not a people sharing a common language, we are not a people sharing a common religion, we are not a people sharing a common ethnicity or race. We are a people sharing a common dream, a dream that each of us decides individually, but a dream of potential, a dream of change. A dream of achievement, of achieving whatever it is we want. That perfect little sonnet, that big paycheck, that being the greatest mom in the world, that being a committed father or a committed husband. That dream each of us gets to decide for ourselves. And that the law should be a way to help us achieve that dream and not be an impediment. That these things transcend us, and that we’re not asking people to buy into someone else’s definition of what is right or wrong, but to recognize that each of us has the ability to decide for ourselves what is right for ourselves. That it is our collective efforts to unleash that potential in everyone. And that is the America we know and love. That’s the America that is still very much alive and well. Even though our politics doesn’t reflect the good-hearted nature — the optimistic nature, the tenacious underdog nature of the American spirit — that spirit is there. That spirit is there in people, in our clients, in our cases, and the communities, and that’s what we have to unleash. Because our leaders don’t lead, our leaders follow, and we need them to follow our sense of optimism and hope and change. And not for it to be a very cynical or selfish way of thinking about the world, but to really say that the rising tide will raise my boat, and I want my neighbor’s boat to be fully upright in the water. That makes me proud about the country I live in, because that’s who we are. To touch into that again, I think, is the great promise of America.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Beautifully said. Thank you so much for sitting down to talk with us today.</b></span></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Anthony D. Romero Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>33 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.85263157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405.jpg" data-image-caption="Archbishop Desmond Tutu presents Anthony Romero with the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405-380x324.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_4405-760x648.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.76710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-16109708.jpg" data-image-caption="ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero at a 2005 news conference in Washington, D.C. Romero addressed a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of a German citizen, Khaled El-Masri, who claimed he was kidnapped by the CIA, interrogated and beaten at a prison in Afghanistan. (© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-16109708-380x292.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-16109708-760x583.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68289473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-21348754.jpg" data-image-caption="ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero speaks to journalists at the U.S. military complex Camp Justice at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the pre-trial session for accused terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants on charges related to the attacks of September 11, 2001. (© Mandel Ngan/Pool/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="ACLU Executive Director Romero speaks to journalists in the hanger which houses the media center in Guantanamo Bay" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-21348754-380x259.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-21348754-760x519.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-35099231.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), waits to speak on the Supreme Court's 2012 decision to uphold provisions of Arizona's controversial immigration law. (CORBIS/Jim Lo Scalzo)" data-image-copyright="U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Controversial Provesion of Arizona Immigration Bill" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-35099231-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-35099231-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553.jpg" data-image-caption="Plaintiff Edith Windsor speaks to the media alongside attorney Roberta Kaplan (front center), attorney James Esseks (second from right) and ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero (at right), outside the U.S. Supreme Court following oral arguments in Windsor's case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), in Washington D.C. (© Michael Reynolds/EPA/CORBIS) " data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-42-44810553-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-0103.jpg" data-image-caption="ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero runs into a longtime friend, Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz, at the 2010 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-0103-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-0103-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66315789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_696_romero.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero addresses the Academy of Achievement during the 2012 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_696_romero-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_696_romero-760x504.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_697.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero addresses the Academy of Achievement during the 2012 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_697-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_697-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_1549_banquet-students-with-romero.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Zachary M. Frankel, and Tarun Chhabra at the 2012 Banquet of the Golden Plate. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-Academy_1549_banquet-students-with-romero" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_1549_banquet-students-with-romero-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Academy_1549_banquet-students-with-romero-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Anthony_edit.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-Anthony_edit" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Anthony_edit-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Anthony_edit-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero took charge of the American Civil Liberties Union in September 2001, and was immediately plunged into controversy. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP040706015829-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.80526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP050621010490-1.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP050621010490-1-380x306.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP050621010490-1-760x612.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.8" title="Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, at the 2019 International Achievement Summit." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, at the 2019 International Achievement Summit.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, at the 2019 International Achievement Summit." data-image-copyright="wp-2280-2019Summit_0676" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676-380x304.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wp-2280-2019Summit_0676-760x608.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, left, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, speaks to reporters as Khaled El-Masri, second from left, listens outside Federal Court, after a hearing before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, November 28, 2006, in Richmond, Virginia. El-Masri wants the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate his lawsuit alleging human rights and due process violations by former CIA Director George Tenet and others. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351-380x266.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP061128016351-760x531.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero meets with U.S. armed service personnel at Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP080605047226-760x571.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68289473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984.jpg" data-image-caption="ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero speaks to journalists at the U.S. military complex Camp Justice at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the pre-trial session for accused terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants on charges related to the attacks of September 11, 2001. (© Mandel Ngan/Pool/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984-380x259.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-AP081208038984-760x519.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-et-IMG_5256.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero addresses the Academy of Achievement at Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa, during the 2009 International Achievement Summit. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-et-IMG_5256-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-et-IMG_5256-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-et-rom0-019.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero discusses the limits of civil liberty and government power with journalist Chris Matthews at Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa, during the 2009 International Achievement Summit. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-et-rom0-019" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-et-rom0-019-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-et-rom0-019-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero meets with student delegates of the Academy of Achievement at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-IMG_5381-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2820512820513" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-photo-by-richard-corman.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-photo-by-richard-corman-296x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-photo-by-richard-corman.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69210526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-021.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero and his father, Demetrio. Demetrio took great pride in young Anthony's scholastic success. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-rom0-021" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-021-380x263.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-021-760x526.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.95921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-022.jpg" data-image-caption="Demetrio Romero with his infant son, Anthony, in New York City. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-rom0-022" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-022-380x365.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-022-760x729.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023.jpg" data-image-caption="Coralie and Demetrio Romero, parents of Anthony. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-023-760x498.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.1930926216641" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024.jpg" data-image-caption="Demetrio and Coralie Romero with their son, Anthony, in New York City. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024-318x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-024-637x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.85789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-025.jpg" data-image-caption="Demetrio Romero struggled to win his promotion from janitor to banquet waiter at New York's Warwick Hotel. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-rom0-025" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-025-380x326.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-025-760x652.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.455938697318" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-026.jpg" data-image-caption="Demetrio Romero arrived in New York City from Puerto Rico as a young man. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-rom0-026" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-026-261x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-026-522x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-027.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He went on to Princeton University and Stanford Law School. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-rom0-027" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-027-380x272.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-027-760x544.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0187667560322" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-028.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero graduated from high school in New Jersey and went on to Princeton and Stanford. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-rom0-028" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-028-373x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-028-746x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3309982486865" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029.jpg" data-image-caption="After graduating from Princeton in 1987, Anthony Romero earned a scholarship to Stanford Law School. (Courtesy of Anthony Romero)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029-286x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-rom0-029-571x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Romero.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-Romero" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Romero-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Romero-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-romero-01-aclu_romero-263-edit_0.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. (Courtesy of ACLU)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-romero-01-aclu_romero-263-edit_0" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-romero-01-aclu_romero-263-edit_0-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-romero-01-aclu_romero-263-edit_0-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2541254125413" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-TGS01391.jpg" data-image-caption="Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. (Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-TGS01391" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-TGS01391-303x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-TGS01391-606x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138.jpg" data-image-caption="ACLU Director Anthony Romero and the student delegates enjoy a spontaneous late-night dance at the Ebony Lodge at the Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve during the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa." data-image-copyright="wordpress-IMG_7138" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress-IMG_7138-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on November 11, 2019</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service illness-or-disability racism-discrimination ambitious pursue-public-office " data-year-inducted="1995" data-achiever-name="Ginsburg"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gin0-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gin0-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Justice, Supreme Court of the United States</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1995</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever ambitious analytical teach-others " data-year-inducted="2005" data-achiever-name="Kennedy"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kennedy_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kennedy_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Anthony M. 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Doudna, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/peter-gabriel/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peter Gabriel</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol W. Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-b-maccready-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul B. MacCready, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony D. Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/clyde-tombaugh/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Clyde Tombaugh</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/herschel-walker/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Herschel Walker</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/alice-waters/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Alice Waters</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200812061633/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. 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