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Glenview author traces roots of civil liberties in California history

Stan Yogi is no stranger to injustice. At an early age, he was aware of his parents' internment during World War II, even though the family did not speak of it.

"We had a few books in our home and I remember looking through them, seeing photos of the World War II incarceration and recognizing that if I had been born 20 years earlier that would have been me," Yogi said. "That injustice has really resonated for me throughout my life and has sparked my passion for justice and equality."

Yogi's concern for civil liberties directed him to the ACLU of Northern California where he has worked for the past 13 years. It also resulted in "Whenever There's a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California" (Heyday Books, $24.95), a sweeping history of the ongoing struggle for minority rights, which Yogi cowrote with Elaine Elinson.

Yogi met Elinson at the ACLU, where she worked as communications director and editor of the ACLU News. Another important contact was Malcolm Margolin of Heyday Books, whom Yogi had met when he was co-editor of "Highway 99: A Literary Journey through California's Great Central Valley."...
Read entire article at San Jose Mercury