American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is the oldest national Arab American organization still functional. Founded by Senator James Abourezk in 1980 as a general Arab American advocacy organization, ADC's recent and most important work has been focused on civil rights and civil liberties issues as they pertain to the Arab American community, and it frequently joins with other civil rights, Arab American, and Muslim American groups to advocate for the rights of Arabs and Muslims in the post-9/11 period. Although it has the highest national profile of any Arab American group, it has been subject to numerous controversies over its 30-year history.

The ADC's current work focuses on tracking instances of anti-Arab discrimination in American public life and working to eradicate the sources of this discrimination. There are three main foci to ADC's work: educational efforts focused on changing mainstream American perceptions of Arab Americans, legal work representing Arab American victims of discrimination and trying to intervene with the U.S. government on policies that frequently lead to discrimination against Arab Americans, and documenting and opposing acts of stereotyping in the media. Most of its work related to discrimination has been tied to official government policies and their particular abuses; for instance, ADC was central in opposing the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, a new form of registering male immigrants from Middle Eastern and Muslim countries (and North Korea) that was billed as an antiterrorism action but in fact led to the deportation of 14,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants, none of whom were charged with any terrorism-related crimes. The ADC has also emphasized travel-related discrimination (often referred to as “flying while brown”) and has worked with the Transportation Security Agency and other governmental bodies to try to eliminate the phenomenon. The ADC's annual convention is the largest Arab American political gathering and is a major organizational focus.

The ADC is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has two major components, ADC and ADC-RI (Research Institute). While ADC handles most of the political and advocacy work carried out under ADC's mantle, ADC-RI is responsible for administering scholarship and internship programs and producing educational materials. ADC-RI has 501(c)3 tax-exempt status.

In addition to these two national components, ADC also has local chapters in areas with major Arab American communities. Currently, there are chapters in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as a grassroots chapter in Washington, D.C. These chapters are a major part of what differentiates ADC from other Arab American organizations, which can largely be categorized either as national level, without grassroots connections, profoundly local, serving or representing a single geographically delimited community, or ethnically or religiously limited, serving one national-origin or religious group.

The ADC was founded by James Abourezk, a Democrat from South Dakota who served in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and who himself was the child of Christian immigrants from Lebanon. (Interestingly, he was succeeded as senator by James Abdnor, another second-generation Lebanese American.)

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