Founded in the summer of 1964 to assist the civil rights movement, the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) solicited lawyers to provide volunteer legal representation for worthy or significant cases. Typically, a volunteer lawyer would travel to a small town in the South and spend one month working on cases in coordination with one of the LCDC's regional offices. While these regional offices handled case work locally, the headquarters in New York handled lawyer solicitation, fundraising, publicity, and other general activities. In December 1967, the LCDC was merged into the Roger Baldwin Foundation (the tax-exempt arm of the ACLU) becoming the LCDC project of the Foundation. As the civil rights movement grew in popularity, the LCDC's practical and ideological goals were met by other organizations, most notably the United States Justice Department.

The Academic Freedom subseries (10.92 linear feet) contains numerous documents relating to the rights of teachers to instruct according to personal conviction and the right of students to learn and inquire fully without fear of hindrance or other reprisals. The subseries is arranged chronologically and alphabetically within each year using consistent headings throughout. Headings include Miscellaneous Academic Freedom issues, Campus Unrest, Cases, Communists, Education, Legislation, Loyalty Oaths, Students, and Teachers. The files contain examples of both collegiate and secondary school violations of educational freedom. The case files are reference files, most representative of the issues considered noteworthy by the Academic Freedom Committee of the ACLU. Materials are primarily composed of correspondence, memoranda, internal reports, and newspaper clippings.

The ACLU censorship files (18.06 linear feet) contain materials which reflect the ACLU's involvement and interest in guaranteeing that freedom of speech and the press are not abridged. The ACLU fought hard against Post Office censorship, pressure groups, and government to protect the rights of artists, nudists, movie makers, homosexuals, and others to express their views, ideas, and images in books, magazines, and movies. These files are the documentation of that struggle.

This subseries (10.08 linear feet) documents the ACLU's involvement in litigation and public education issues relating to the separation of church and state and religious freedom. The various forms of materials in the subseries include: ACLU policy statements, press releases, memoranda, government documents, clippings, legal briefs, conference proceedings, and correspondence. The files are grouped under headings including: cases, child custody, education, Jehovah's Witnesses, public funds, public schools, released time, religious displays, religious freedom, Sunday blue laws, and transportation.

The Freedom of Movement subseries (8.82 linear feet) contains materials relating to issues of immigration, naturalization, travel within and outside the United States, and deportation. Individual cases, general policy, and legal questions are addressed.

This subseries (5.04 linear feet) contains various legal, administrative, and correspondence files relating to the ACLU's involvement in the protection of union and employee rights. The records also contain newspaper clippings and reprints of ACLU-published documents relating to labor unions and business practices.