2011 Annual Dinner Celebration

Honoree Jessica Ahlquist

Roger Williams’ principled espousal of the critical importance of separation of church and state was later enshrined in the First Amendment. Although it is a legacy that all Rhode Islanders should be proud of, church-state cases remain among the most controversial lawsuits the RI ACLU takes on, and the ones most likely to generate vitriol and hatred from people who fail to appreciate the genius of the First Amendment.

In fact, it takes an extraordinary amount of courage for one person to stand up to the community in order to vindicate this fundamental principle. It is all the more extraordinary when that person is a young teenager, willing to face harassment and intimidation – not only from her peers but from mean-spirited adults – in order to stand up for what she, and Roger Williams, believed in. Yet this is precisely what Jessica Ahlquist, now sixteen, has done for more than a year, and done with grace, intelligence and a maturity that is light years beyond that of most of her critics.

Jessica is a student at Cranston High School West who suspected she was an atheist from a very young age, but only became sure after a long period of study and thought. As a freshman at her school, she noticed a banner in the auditorium entitled "School Prayer." She was deeply offended to see the school sponsoring a religious entreaty and was pretty sure it was unconstitutional. When she learned that the ACLU had objected to its presence and urged its removal, Jess also began publicly speaking out against the school’s display of the prayer mural – engaging in discussions with fellow students, expressing her opinion in media interviews and in social media, and standing up before hostile crowds at heated school committee meetings. Fully cognizant of the reaction that awaited her, she nonetheless offered to serve as the plaintiff in the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the display when the school committee voted to retain it.

We know that teens yearn to be popular, and Jess knew that taking the city to court over a religious issue in a predominantly Catholic city and state was never going to win her a popularity contest. Instead, she has been the victim of vicious comments in blog posts, on Facebook and elsewhere, often by people who, at least chronologically, are adults but who personify some of the sorrier displays of human nature. But Jess has not backed down. Both her fortitude and her eloquence have been inspiring, and epitomize a true civil liberties hero.

In addition to maintaining a strong public presence to explain the principles behind the lawsuit, Jessica has used her new-found notoriety to speak out on LGBT issues like marriage equality, and has begun to work with the Secular Student Alliance to form a humanist/atheist student group in her school.

Jessica’s courage and her commitment to the First Amendment values of church-state separation in the face of public hostility exemplify what the William G. McLoughlin First Amendment Award is all about, and the RI ACLU is privileged to honor her with it.