24 Facts About Anthony Romero

Anthony Romero assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.

Anthony Romero spent the initial years of his childhood growing up in a public housing project in the Bronx.

Anthony Romero's father worked as a houseman at a large Manhattan hotel and was repeatedly turned down for a more financially lucrative job as a banquet waiter, being told that it was because he did not speak English well enough.

Demetrio Anthony Romero later decided to seek assistance from the attorney of the labor union he belonged to, hoping to file a grievance against his employer.

Anthony Romero won the case, which allowed for him to seek out better paying work and later allowed for the family to improve their standard of living.

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Anthony Romero was the first member of his family to graduate from high school.

Anthony Romero received his B A degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1987, having written a senior thesis titled "Colombian Migration and Political Participation in the United States".

Anthony Romero later received a JD from Stanford University Law School in 1990.

Anthony Romero was a Dinkelspiel Scholar at Stanford University, a Cane Scholar at Princeton, and a National Hispanic Scholar at both institutions.

Anthony Romero started his career at the Rockefeller Foundation, notably leading a foundation review that helped determine future directions in civil rights advocacy.

In 1992, Anthony Romero began working for the Ford Foundation, initially serving as a program officer in the Civil Rights and Social Justice Program.

Anthony Romero became executive director in September 2001, just before the September 11,2001 attacks.

Anthony Romero is the first openly gay man and the first Hispanic director of the civil liberties institution.

Shortly thereafter, Anthony Romero helped to establish the John Adams Project, in collaboration with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, to assist the under-resourced military defense lawyers in the Guantanamo military commissions.

ACLU's massive growth under Anthony Romero's leadership allowed for the organization to expand its activities with regard to racial justice, religious freedom, privacy rights, reproductive freedom, and LGBT rights.

In 2008, Anthony Romero spoke at the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC, advocating for the legality of abortion.

In 2016, Anthony Romero co-signed a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon calling for a more humane drug policy, along with people like Eve Ensler, Norman Lear, and Ernesto Zedillo.

In 2002, Anthony Romero signed a consent decree the New York Attorney General at the time, Eliot Spitzer, to settle a privacy breach that had been discovered on the ACLU website.

However, as designated in the decree, Anthony Romero was required to distribute the decree itself to the national ACLU board within 30 days.

In 2004, Anthony Romero received criticism for signing two agreements without the consent or approval of the larger ACLU leadership council.

On June 26,2011, Anthony Romero was charged with a DWI after being seen "careening into oncoming traffic" by police.

In 2011, Anthony Romero received the "Maggie" Award, highest honor of the Planned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder, Margaret Sanger.

Anthony Romero was featured in the HBO documentary The Latino List.

Anthony Romero is the recipient of the 2020 Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University.