About Us

The Defending Dissent Foundation believes that dissent is patriotic and necessary to our democracy. We are an advocacy organization whose mission is to protect and advance the right of dissent in the United States by:

• Translating grassroots civil liberties concerns into national policy debate and action,
• Alerting local activists to civil liberties threats, and
• Educating the public, the press and policymakers as to how dissent is crucial to democracy.

DDF was founded in 1960 as the National Committee to Abolish HUAC (the House UnAmerican Activities Committee). Our founder, Frank Wilkinson was sentenced to a year in jail for refusing to testify before HUAC on the grounds of the First Amendment. When Frank got out of jail, he spent the rest of his life fighting for civil rights and civil liberties -- the two go hand in hand.

Back then, our government used the threat of Communism to justify domestic spying, jailing dissenters, deporting immigrants and restricting the right to organize and protest. Terrorism is the new Communism, justifying the same unconstitutional tactics. At DDF, we work in coalition with other civil liberties groups, and reach out to include peace, environmental, civil rights and other activist groups to stop threats to our right to dissent.

Join us!

     First Amendment Foundation

+   National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
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 =  The Defending Dissent Foundation