For the third year in a row, the ACLU of Colorado's nominee for the national ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship has been selected to receive the $4,000 award. Established in 2000, the scholarship honors graduating seniors who have demonstrated a strong commitment to civil liberties and civil rights through some form of student activism.
This year we nominated Ryan Brown, a senior at the Denver School of the Arts, for her documentary on the life of former Colorado Governor Ralph Carr. Brown was researching the history of World War II when she came upon the story of Ralph Carr, one of the only western leaders to publicly speak against the internment of Japanese Americans, a stand that cost him his political career. Brown conducted interviews with men and women who had been forcefully resettled in internment camps.
Her work was so compelling it led the ACLU of Colorado to create a new annual award of our own: the Ralph L. Carr award for devotion to a significant contemporary issue. We wish her the best in her collegiate years and look forward to following her future activist projects.
Watch Ryan's award-winning documentary, "A Small Voice But a Strong Voice," about former Colorado governor Ralph L. Carr's stand against internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The film also won several awards including first place in the 2006 National History Day, History Channel Award of Excellence in Documentary Film and the Merit Award in video/film production, NFAA ARTS Recognition and Talent Search 2006-2007. The film was a finalist for Best Documentary in the 2006 Denver Academy Film Festival for Youth.
Read Ryan's personal essay about her experience researching and producing the documentary.