By: Matthew Robinson and Merlin Vinegradova

View photos or watch clips from the event

The ACLU Foundation of Southern California hosted its 20th Annual Law Luncheon on Friday, June 13, at The L.A. Hotel, honoring individuals dedicated to civil liberties, including advocates and attorneys who have worked hand-in-hand with our affiliate.

Amongst those present was Henry Waxman, representative of California’s 33^rd congressional district since 1975, who recently announced his plans to retire. Waxman received the Lifetime Advocate for Justice Award in recognition of his outstanding legislative record and tireless civil rights activism spanning the past four decades.

“Ignorance and fear drive reason and common sense away,” said Waxman upon accepting the award. “Conveyers of deception and disinformation have to be confronted. We have to fight back against those who would try to distort information and to deny people justice.”

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Also in attendance was Laverne Cox, transgender advocate, producer and actress best known for her role in Orange Is the New Black, who accepted the Social Responsibility in the Media Award on behalf of the acclaimed series. Cox has been a leader in the LGBT movement, helping to educate people on the intricacies and challenges of transgender life and lending her voice to the ongoing struggle for justice and equality.

“Our show has sparked many necessary conversations about the prison industrial complex, about the justice system in this country,” said Cox. “Our show has sparked really meaningful conversations about diversity on television, about the roles of women on television, and of course, it has sparked conversations about transgender people, not only in the media but also in our country.”

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ACLU SoCal also honored attorneys from top law firms in Los Angeles for their work on issues including criminal justice, freedom of information, LGBT rights, artistic expression, voting rights and racial justice, including Greenberg Glusker; Latham & Watkins; Davis Wright Tremaine; Skadden Arps; Nixon Peabody; Jenner & Block; Law Office of Robert Rubin; Traber Voorhees; Sullivan & Cromwell; and Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho.

"When you are trying to bring about lasting change, it makes a huge difference to walk into the room with the ACLU at your back and beside you. And that is why when the ACLU asks you to give your time, your effort, your support, you should do it," said Bert Voorhees, whose firm was awarded the Racial Justice Award for its work on K.L. v. City of Glendale.

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Matthew Robinson and Merlin Vinegradova are interns for the communications department at the ACLU of Southern California. Follow ACLU SoCal on Twitter.

By: Ana Zamora, ACLU of Northern California

Today is Juneteenth and the United States just executed three black men from three southern states in 24 hours. This is outrageous.

Here’s a "throwback Thursday" for you. June 19, 1865: African-American men, women and children in Galveston, Texas rejoiced and celebrated in the streets after hearing these words: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

June 19, or "Juneteenth" as it is known, is a day to celebrate independence, freedom and liberty. It is also a day to remember and bear witness to this country’s despicable truth that we enslaved our African-American brothers and sisters and that we still have a long way to go before we tear down the structures that allow racism to endure.

This year, however, I can’t find it in me to celebrate. In fact, I am full of outrage.

Why? Because 149 years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was officially enforced, the United States executed three black men in three Southern states in 24 hours.

Those that deny the continued existence of structural racism in this country need not look any further than our criminal justice system at large and our death penalty system in particular to be convinced.  Someone who is black – particularly black men – has a significantly higher chance of ending up arrested, locked up and on death row than someone who is white.

But how can we have a meaningful and long overdue conversation about race and our history of slavery if we continue to operate a system that disproportionately sends black men to death row? I argue that we can’t.

So this year, I honor and celebrate Juneteenth by calling for an end to the death penalty in the U.S. once and for all, and a beginning to a national dialogue about the slavery, institutionalized racism and the white privilege that some of us forget we have.

Ana Zamora is death penalty policy director at the ACLU of Northern California.