About

Our Mission

Americans for Democratic Action is an independent liberal political organization dedicated to promoting individual liberty and economic justice.

We are dedicated to achieving a fair and just society using the tools of education and political action. NYC ADA is the local Chapter, and reflects the liberal, labor agenda in New York City through its involvement in issues that affect quality of life for all New Yorkers.

ADA’s HISTORY

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), founded in 1947, is an independent liberal political organization dedicated to promoting individual liberty and economic justice, working to advance civil rights at home and human rights abroad, and promoting the general welfare in a world at peace.

ADA was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, labor leaders Walter Reuther and David Dubinsky, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and Hubert H. Humphrey shortly after FDR died.  The goal then?  To keep the New Deal dream of a fair and prosperous America for all alive for generations to come.

ADA is a multi-issue organization, speaking out and acting on the topics of the day. These topics have ranged from support for civil liberties during the infamous McCarthy period to active participation in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and opposition to the Vietnam War, and in more recent times to equal rights for women, promotion of fair global trade policies, universal health care, and strengthening social security. ADA’s ratings of legislative bodies – particularly the US Congress – are well known and highly regarded.