Mercyhurst marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 with new Homeland Security Collection
Archive documents creation of DHS civil rights office and expands university’s Thomas J. and Michelle Ridge Collection
On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Mercyhurst University is launching a new digital archival collection documenting an important chapter in the nation’s response to 9/11: the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).
The collection, housed alongside Mercyhurst’s Thomas J. and Michelle Ridge Collection, includes several dozen documents detailing the purpose and early work of the office, along with eight oral and documentary histories from individuals who helped build CRCL during the Department of Homeland Security’s formative years. Among them are former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who served as undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security when the department launched.
The materials were assembled by CRCL alumni, particularly those who served during the department’s early years following 9/11. Daniel W. Sutherland, the first DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, approached Mercyhurst about finding a permanent home for the collection and worked with Mercyhurst University Archivist Bryan Colvin to transfer the materials and establish the digital archive. Sutherland later described the office’s responsibility as providing senior DHS leadership with advice on issues at the intersection of homeland security and civil rights and civil liberties.
Mercyhurst was selected in part because the university already houses the Thomas J. and Michelle Ridge Collection and because of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge’s role in launching and shaping CRCL as the nation’s first secretary of Homeland Security. The university’s academic programs in intelligence and cybersecurity also provide a natural connection to the collection and its potential use by students and scholars.
“Twenty-five years after September 11, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to preserve the history of how our nation responded to an unprecedented moment,” said David Livingston, Ph.D., president of Mercyhurst University. “This collection is especially meaningful at Mercyhurst because of our longstanding relationship with Tom and Michele Ridge and Governor Ridge’s leadership in establishing the Department of Homeland Security. These materials will give students, scholars, and future generations another important resource for understanding the decisions and challenges that shaped our country in the years following 9/11.”
Congress established the Department of Homeland Security through the Homeland Security Act of 2002 in response to the September 11 attacks. Among the new department’s features was an office charged with advising the secretary and department leadership on the civil rights and civil liberties implications of security measures and helping strengthen security while preserving constitutional protections.
During its early years, CRCL addressed issues ranging from emergency management and accessibility to airport screening and traveler redress. Its work included efforts to protect people with disabilities during emergencies, improvements to federal information technology accessibility, support for state and local fusion centers, and initiatives to engage racial, religious, and ethnic minority communities into the homeland security effort.
“Researchers have had limited access to how civil rights and civil liberties considerations actually shaped homeland security policy in the years after 9/11,” said Bryan Colvin, university archivist at Mercyhurst University. “This collection opens that up. It documents Gov. Tom Ridge’s role in establishing the office, and it makes the case that security and liberty can reinforce one another rather than compete.”
The collection is intended to provide greater insight into the climate in which national security decisions were being made in the years immediately following 9/11 and to document the decision to incorporate a civil rights and civil liberties function within the nation’s newly created homeland security agency. Together, the materials offer future students, scholars, and policymakers a resource for examining the relationship between national security and the protection of constitutional rights and values.
The CRCL collection is entirely digital and will be available to the public, researchers, and students beginning Sept. 11. The collection can be accessed at mhur.st/DHS-Office-Civil-Rights-Liberties.