Disability History Through the Activism of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Communities
For much of American history, disabled people were treated as second class citizens who did not deserve independent living or civil rights. Disabled people themselves have demanded their rights through advocacy, civic engagement, and protest. While Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who have disabilities have always been part of this movement, they are often left out of the histories and narratives. Here are some examples of people of color who fought for civil rights for disabled Americans.
Harriet Tubman Leads the Combahee Raid (1863)
Harriet Tubman received a traumatic brain injury when she interfered with a white overseer who was trying to recapture a fugitive child. That injury caused chronic pain and recurrent seizures. Through the antebellum era, Tubman led freedom seekers to safety using the network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. In June of 1863, Tubman led Black Union soldiers in a raid on the Combahee River in South Carolina that secured the freedom of 700 enslaved people. Tubman spent 30 years advocating for a pension from the federal government for her service, claiming her disability entitled her to the same kind of federal support as other veterans. She was repeatedly turned down. Instead, she received a pension as the widow of a Civil War veteran. While Tubman became a well-known antislavery advocate, her experiences as a disabled person have been largely overlooked until recently. Now, historians agree that her many years petitioning the federal government for pension funding was a form of self-advocacy.
Image Attribution: Smithsonian Institution
Tuskegee Infantile Paralysis Center Opens (1941)
The Andrew Memorial Hospital was part of the Tuskegee Institute, a historically Black college. In 1941, the hospital opened a unit for Black children disabled by polio infections, aided by civil rights activists like Mary Bethune and J. S. Bookens, and funded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s charitable organization, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (later renamed The March of Dimes). The unit was a landmark achievement in the treatment and rehabilitation of polio among Black children and became a symbol of Black community progress. It also allowed activists and health practitioners to advocate for greater funding for polio research and support for Black disabled children. The Black orthopedist John Chenault served as the hospital’s director between 1941 and 1953.
Image Attribution: Fair Use, Tuskegee Institute; statue depicts Dr. John W. Chenault, nurse Warrena A. Turpin, and a young polio patient named Gordon Stewart.
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) Hires Its First Director of Interracial Activities (1944)
The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), which was renamed the March of Dimes in the 1970s, was founded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1938 to promote and fund research related to poliomyelitis (polio). This viral disease caused flu-like symptoms in most people, but in rare cases resulted in paralysis. During the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, several polio epidemics swept across the United States, resulting in large numbers of disabled survivors. In 1944, the NFIP named Charles Hudson Bynum as the Director of Interracial Activities. His job was to increase the organization’s programs and services for Black polio patients and survivors. Though many programs remained segregated for years to come, this effort represented a step toward recognizing the rights of Black individuals with disabilities.
Image Attribution: Fair Use
Vasco De Gama Hale Helps Found the Blind Veterans Association (1946)
Vasco Hale, a college athlete and teacher, joined the army during World War II. During his training in Officer Candidate School, Hale became disabled in a grenade training accident that left him blind and resulted in the amputation of his right hand. Hale, along with other blind veterans of World War II, created the Blind Veterans Association in 1945 to advocate for rehabilitation for blind veterans. Hale also advocated for federal benefits for all disabled veterans so they could live more independently after the war. Hale joined the NAACP in 1950, bringing his experiences advocating for disabled individuals to the fight for civil rights for Black people.
Image Attribution: Fair Use
Polio Survivor and Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer Testifies at the DNC (1964)
Fannie Lou Hamer, like many others of her generation, had polio as a child. She was left with partial paralysis and walked with a limp. She experienced additional disabilities, including permanent kidney damage and a blood clot behind her eye, when she was arrested and beaten at the direction of white police officers in Mississippi, after returning from a voter-education event. Hamer testified about this assault and its lasting effects at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, in a now-iconic moment that helped expose the violence of the Jim Crow South.
Image Attribution: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Creation of the Gouverneur Parents Association (1970)
In the first half of the twentieth century, there were few supports for intellectually and developmentally disabled children and adults outside of large institutions, such as the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York. It was not uncommon for these institutions to become seriously overcrowded. Beginning in 1962, many Black and Latino children were transferred from Willowbrook to the Gouverneur Annex. At these institutions, most disabled individuals were kept in bleak conditions with few therapies or supports, and almost no opportunities to participate in community activities. In 1970, when budget cuts threatened closure of the Gouverneur Annex, a group comprised mostly of Black and Latino parents created the Gouverneur Parents Association (GPA) to demand better treatment for disabled children. One mother, Willie May Goodman, likened the work of the GPA to the work of civil rights activists fighting against racial segregation in the American South.
Image Attribution: Fair Use
Creation of Disabled in Action, New York City (1970)
In the 1960s, inspired by the energy and tactics of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements, disabled people across the United States began to form disability advocacy organizations. One was Disabled in Action (DIA) in New York City, which focused on advocating for improvements in education, housing, and public transit so people with disabilities could live more independently. The DIA was founded by Judith Heumann, Denise McQuade, Bobbi Linn, Frieda Tankas, Fred Francis, Pat Figueroa, and others who staged protests to bring attention to the exclusion and denial of opportunities experienced by disabled people.
Image Attribution: Fair Use
Judy Heumann with Kristi Joiner, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, Beacon Press (2020)
Fred Pelka, What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement, University of Massachusetts Press (2012)
Creation of the Independent Living Movement, Berkeley, California (1972)
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a group of disabled students at the University of California, Berkeley started what came to be known as the Independent Living Movement. The students advocated for improved access for students with disabilities and took their movement beyond campus in 1972 when they founded the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL). This was the first of many CILs across the United States that continue to advocate for accessibility, inclusion, and self-determination for people with disabilities. Johnnie Ann Lacy, a Black polio survivor and wheelchair user who had to fight to get an education at San Francisco State University, was among the pioneers who founded that first CIL, and she went on to serve as the director of Community Resources for Independent Living in California.
Image Attribution: Fair Use
Fred Pelka, What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement, University of Massachusetts Press (2012)
Kim Nielsen, A Disability History of the United States, Beacon Press (2012)
The Black Panther Party: Pivotal Participants in the San Francisco 504 Sit-In (1977)
By 1977, disabled people across the United States were frustrated by the delay in regulating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 required federal agencies to make their programs, services, and activities accessible to disabled individuals. Disability activists demanded that the government regulate and enforce the law and staged protests and sit-ins in federal buildings nationwide. One group occupied a federal building in San Francisco for nearly a month. Among the participants was Brad Lomax, a wheelchair user and member of the Black Panther Party, who connected with the Panthers to provide food and media training for the protesters during the long demonstration.
Image Attribution: Fair Use (see NYT source) – Photo by HolLynn D’Lil
Founding of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (1978)
Pat Figueroa was a founding member of Disabled in Action (DIA) in New York City in the early 1970s. The organization staged sit-ins and other protests, demanding better access to housing, transportation, and education. In 1978, Figueroa secured funding from the National Paraplegia Foundation to found the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York (CIDNY) and later helped found the 504 Democratic Club, a political organization focused on expanding disability rights. He spent decades as a civil servant, working to expand services and civil rights for disabled New Yorkers.
Image Attribution: Fair use (no other attributes listed)
Harold Iron Shield Honors the Memory of Indigenous Inmates of the Canton Asylum (1987)
Harold Iron Shield, a member of the Lakota Nation’s Yankton tribe, started holding memorial ceremonies in 1987 on the site of the former Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, which was created by the U.S. government in the early 1900s to confine Native Americans with mental illnesses. An investigation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1927 found that many of the “patients” had no signs of mental illness but were confined in abusive conditions in order to gain control of their assets or punish those who resisted government policies. The institution closed in 1934. The memorial ceremonies conducted by Iron Shield not only honored the lives of those who lived and died at Canton, but served to raise awareness about the treatment of incarcerated Indigenous people, share stories about ancestors, and demand greater accountability from the federal government.
Image Attribution: Early 20th century image attributed to the South Dakota Historical Society
Susan Burch, Committed: Remembering Native Kinship In and Beyond Institutions, UNC Press (2021)
Tony Coelho Sponsors the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
Tony Coelho, a Portuguese-American, developed epilepsy after a car accident as a teenager. As an adult, he was elected to Congress from California’s 15th Congressional District. Coelho is credited with introducing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in Congress, which was ultimately passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990.
Image Attribution: none listed
Donald Galloway Secures the Right of Disabled Individuals to Serve as Jurors (1993)
Donald Galloway became blind as a teenager, and while working for the Berkeley Center for Independent Living, became an active member of the disability rights movement. He went on to serve on the Colorado Governor’s Council on Disability and ran a Center for Independent Living branch in Washington, D.C. In 1991, Galloway was called to serve as a juror. However, he was dismissed by the judge, who thought he was incapable of serving since he could not see the proceedings. Galloway sued, and in 1993, a court ruled that automatically disqualifying blind people from jury service was unconstitutional.
Image Attribution: Fair use (no other attributions found)
Lois Curtis and Olmstead v. L.C. (1999)
Lois Curtis, who lived with cognitive disabilities and schizophrenia, felt trapped in institutions that heavily medicated her. With the help of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Curtis sued the state of Georgia, as represented by the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Tommy Olmstead. In 1999, the Supreme Court held that unnecessary institutionalization was a violation of an individual’s civil rights, and that state and local governments needed to provide more services that allowed for integrated, community-based living.
Image Attribution: Pete Souza, official White House photograph
Cinda Hughes: Advocate for Native Americans with Disabilities Takes Pride of Place at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (2004)
Cinda Hughes, a member of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma with a lengthy and impressive resume of academic and professional accomplishments, was named Miss Wheelchair America in 2004. She wanted to be invited to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade along with Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe, but Macy’s initially said no. An email campaign from friends, Indian organizations, and disability advocates moved Macy’s to invite Cinda, who viewed the parade from the VIP section in front of the iconic store. Hughes continued her work advocating for Native American and disability rights until her death in 2021.
Image Attribution: Cinda Hughes with former U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
Alice Wong Founds the Disability Visibility Project (2014)
Alice Wong, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy, has long been a disability rights activist. In 2013, President Obama appointed Wong to the National Council on Disability (NCD). In 2014, a partnership with the oral history project StoryCorps, which records the life experiences of disabled people, led Wong to develop the Disability Visibility Project. The online community is dedicated to creating, recording, sharing, and amplifying disability culture, stories, and media. Among other honors, in 2020, Time magazine recognized Wong as one of 16 notable people fighting for equality in America.
Image Attribution: Fair Use
Disability Visibility Project