Own this one-of-a-kind Black Lives Matter wooden sign personalized, autographed and hand-painted by Joan Baez which hung in front of her house.
Joan Baez is an iconic singer, songwriter, musician, and activist, who has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing over 30 albums. Even when it was neither safe nor fashionable, Joan has been a courageous advocate for social justice singing about freedom and Civil Rights everywhere from the backs of flatbed trucks in Mississippi to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963. She participated in the birth of the Free Speech movement at UC Berkeley and co-founded the Institute For The Study Of Nonviolence. Joan stood in the fields alongside Cesar Chavez and migrant farm workers striking for fair wages in 1966 and opposed capital punishment at San Quentin during a Christmas vigil.
Joan received the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Award for her commitment to human and civil rights issues and founded Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, which she headed for 13 years. She helped establish Amnesty International on the West Coast and marched in Northern Ireland, calling for an end to violence. Joan appeared at rallies on behalf of the nuclear freeze movement and performed at benefit concerts to defeat California legislation that would have banned openly gay people from teaching in public schools.
She performed on Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope tour with U2, Peter Gabriel, Sting and others. Her 1989 concert in Czechoslovakia was cited by President-to-be Vaclav Havel as a tipping point in the Velvet Revolution. She traveled to war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1993 and sang in honor of Pete Seeger at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1994.
Joan received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 49th annual Grammy Awards® in 2007, where she introduced the Dixie Chicks and saluted their courage to protest the Iraq war. She attended the first presidential inauguration of Barack Obama that year, and returned to Washington in 2010, for In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement, live from the East Room. Amnesty International’s highest honor was bestowed on Joan, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, in recognition of her exceptional leadership in the fight for human rights in 2015. In 2017, Joan was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Please note that the ACLU of Southern California is a 501(c)4 organization and not all purchases are tax deductible. Please check with your accountant.