ACLU Chapter Removes Its Shingle in Kern County : Civil liberties: Political realities force closure. Some argue that its demise eliminates a defender of rights.

BAKERSFIELD —  It has always been a hard sell here in Kern County, the American Civil Liberties Union. If folks do not harbor outright hostility toward the “liberal” group, it seems they are simply too busy raising cotton or pumping oil to pay it much heed.

This week, however, things hit rock bottom. Plagued by organizational problems and unable to find a single candidate interested in serving on the board of directors, the ACLU’s Kern County chapter collapsed Wednesday when its weary leaders declared that they could no longer hang on.

The chapter’s demise leaves about 330 ACLU members bereft of local representation and removes a civil rights watchdog from a county where at least some believe vigilance is sorely needed.

It also suggests that Bakersfield--the state’s 15th largest city with 183,000 residents--remains in some ways an insulated farm town where the dominant conservatism leaves little room for rabble-rousing activists.

This is, after all, a place where right-wing radio hero Rush Limbaugh sells out the high school stadium and the National Organization for Women is grateful if two dozen people show up for a rally.

The lone Democrat occupying a countywide office is the coroner, and the top prosecutor, Edward R. Jagels, is one of the most prominent conservative district attorneys in California.

“Kern County is not ACLU country,” observed Bakersfield Mayor Clarence E. Medders, confiding that the group has “certainly never been on my list of top 10 favorites.” Many local people, Medders said, “feel the group is just un-American. Un-American is one thing that doesn’t fly around here.”

The chapter was decertified Wednesday night by its parent affiliate, the Los Angeles-based ACLU of Southern California. It is the first time in about five years that the Southland group has lost a chapter, said associate director Linda Hunt. In the mid-1980s, Ventura County’s chapter folded, but a group is now reorganizing there.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” Hunt said of the Kern chapter’s fate, “because it removes our eyes and ears from a community that has been the scene of constitutional violations through the years. There were some dedicated people up there, but there were only four or five. That’s just not enough.”

Among the dedicated few is Myra Barker, who served as treasurer of the chapter. Barker, a soft-spoken woman, believes that the ACLU’s controversial image kept many locals who endorse the group’s mission from hoisting its torch.

“The ACLU is a dirty word here,” Barker said wistfully. “We had people who supported us philosophically, but they were afraid to be (publicly) associated with us. Isn’t it a shame that you have to face that sort of thing in a free country?”

Barker said attempts to recruit local attorneys failed because they feared that the ACLU’s defense of unpopular causes would antagonize bosses or clients.

“We had a lot of paper members, but you can’t do anything with paper members,” said Doris Ashworth, the chapter’s vice president. “I’m very sad about this. I truly felt we had an important role here.”

Despite the chapter’s demise, the ACLU won some victories in Kern County. Hunt recalled two recent cases--one that stopped the removal of a controversial book from Bakersfield schools and another that protested the erection of a cross on a municipal cemetery in Tehachapi.

“I particularly remember our lawsuit against the cemetery, because after negotiations the city fathers simply lopped off the top of the cross and said it would now be a T for Tehachapi,” Hunt said.

The chapter was at its pinnacle in the 1960s and early ‘70s, veteran members say. Then, it enjoyed the assistance of several local lawyers and took on housing and employment discrimination as well as voting rights abuses.

Ray Gonzales, a member during that era who once served in the state Assembly, said one of the ACLU’s major local accomplishments came in 1970 when members fought for equal housing for black professors employed by the newly opened state university. Black academics were being denied rental apartments in the white neighborhoods near campus, but ACLU members threatened to sue and landlords changed their ways, Gonzales said.

Several former supporters complained that it was the leadership of the current ACLU chapter--specifically President Wesley Crawford--that dragged the chapter down and discouraged them from staying active.

Crawford was recently removed from office after running up $3,500 in bills his colleagues described as unauthorized. Crawford said the bills were for phone calls and printing costs related to ACLU business and blamed the Southern California affiliate for refusing to supply enough funds to keep the chapter viable.

Other onetime ACLU backers, however, said that the political realities of Kern County can make association with the group a risky proposition.

“I may run for office again someday, and if I was an ACLU member, I’d get bashed over the head with that by the conservatives here,” Gonzales said. “The ACLU is an honorable organization, a defensible organization. But a lot of people oppose it, and they can do you in.”

John Blake proudly counts himself as one of those opponents, and, as the local chapter leader for the right-wing John Birch Society, he is quietly celebrating the ACLU’s disappearance.

“People all over this country are waking up and seeing that the liberalism of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s doesn’t work,” said Blake, adding that three newcomers “dropped in” at the John Birch Society’s most recent meeting. “The ACLU is out of step with the people of Bakersfield, and out of step with mainstream America. This is definitely good news.”

Barker, for one, is hopeful that the civil liberties group will take root in her hometown again one day.

“It’s strange that this city still has so much of that good-old-boy conservative farmer mentality,” she said. “Maybe someday, when Bakersfield is a little bigger and the pendulum swings to the left a little bit, we can try again.”