I had prepared testimony which I will give you, but I think I'd like to wing it.Judy Heumann:
First of all, I would like to begin by saying to the two of you who came and saw and helped us over these years in major battles, thank you. Now we're down to the bottom line. The basic issue here is are we going to perpetuate segregation in our society. We are one of the largest minorities in this country. I looked at the 18 points H.E.W. put out this morning. I have never seen a better blue print for segregation. These kinds of issues, the issue of Civil Rights and Human Rights are not issues that people with disabilities can compromise with any further.
My ability to move around and my ability to regain a pride in myself as a person with a disability is one of the most important things that has happened here today. To see hundreds of people with disabilities roll, sign, using canes, the more severely retarded people for the first time joining us in an incredible struggle, is one that leads me to believe that we're going to win this. Because we are not going to stop until 504 is a reality. 504, I believe, is a basic Civil Rights platform, a platform that guarantees to each person with a disability in this country that they are equal in the eyes of the law and that they will have equal access to educational institutions, hospitals, to the institutions in our society which serve us all?.
This Hearing is symbolic and we want you involved. And we are going to make a change then, and by making these changes we're going to begin to acknowledge in this society that people with disabilities are people first and we are not going to concentrate on the fact that they happen to be different. In fact, I am proud enough now to believe that people in our society are missing a tremendous feeling by not knowing me, by not knowing Judy Heumann, by not knowing the people here and the millions of other people with disabilities in our society. I think this country would be a much freer and fuller place if equal access and equal rights were guaranteed.
It's very difficult for us to sit here allowing discussions to go on which, in our opinion, really violate the intent of the law. Whether here was a Section 504, whether there was a Public Law 94-142, whether there was a Brown vs. Board of Education, the harassment, the lack of equities that has been provided for disabled individuals, that now is even being discussed by the administration, is so intolerable that I cannot put into words. I can tell you that every time you raise issues of separate-but-equal the outrage of disabled individuals across the country is going to continue, is going to be ignited. There will be more takeovers of buildings until finally, maybe, you'll begin to understand our position. We will no longer allow the government to oppress disabled individuals. We want the law enforced. We want no more segregation. We will accept no more discussions of segregation and I would appreciate it if you would stop shaking your head in agreement when I do not think you know what we are talking about.
Jeannine Whitmer, Demonstrator
I know the issues around 504. I know how it will affect educational facilities. I went to school at Wayne State because it was accessible, and it was assumed I would go there. It had nothing I wanted- it was the only option open. Michigan State and U. of Michigan were and are inaccessible. Now I go to SF State and it is relatively accessible. It's taken four years, chopping down their barriers. The building which has the liberal studies in it is inaccessible. Basic Science building is inaccessible. That means the disabled cannot go into the technical science fields there. If I were just starting in my education now I would go into medicine. As an undergraduate they said to me, "You want to be a doctor?" I was laughed at, so out of frustration I went into education, because it was easy and I wanted an education.Source
Note: I've got lots going on this weekend (and this past week), but didn't want to pass this anniversary by without reminding those that might not know it that at age 38, I belong to the first generation of disabled Americans who were allowed to attend grade school and high school with our nondisabled peers. There were exceptions, but physically disabled children (and definitely developmentally disabled children) were routinely excluded from all public school interaction with their nondisabled peers, sometimes entirely because they rode on wheels. It is because of the heroes of the 1977 504 sit-ins who demanded that the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 be fully implemented. They said they would wait no longer and they demanded equal access to public buildings. The ADA was possible because of this. My education and ability to sit here and type today was profoundly effected by the actions of these disability rights heroes of the past. Just thirty years ago.
More linkage as I get the time.
Update: Here's some background info on the Rehab Act and the 504 Sit-In, written for the Independent Living site by Chava Willig Levy:
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
In October 1972, Congress passed a rehabilitation bill that sparked jubilation among disability rights activists. That jubilation was short-lived, however, because President Nixon promptly vetoed the bill.
Ten years earlier, the disabled community might have swallowed this bitter pill of defeat stoically. But revolution was in the air. Protests were staged across the country. In New York City, Heumann and eighty comrades held a sit-in on Madison Avenue, bringing traffic to a standstill (Ingram, 1981). Angry letters and demonstrators flooded Washington. Finally, Congress overrode Nixon's veto. On September 23, 1973, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 became law.
Once again, jubilation was tempered with certainty that the battle had just begun. The new law was a meaningless piece of paper without federal regulations through which it -- and particularly Section 504 of the law -- would be enforced. Section 504 states:
No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Eunice Fiorito, former director of New York City's Mayor's Office for the Handicapped, first president of the American Coalition of Citizens With Disabilities, and currently Special Assistant to the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, recalls:
It was 1975 and there were no regulations. We proceeded then to come into 1976 and there were still no regulations, and therefore the law was not being implemented. (In 1977) within two days after the Carter Administration was put into place, about 15 of us came to see Secretary (of Health, Education and Welfare) Califano, expressing our desire to work with him and his staff to get (the regulations) out in a reasonable period of time. We went back and forth to meeting after meeting in good faith. And we finally said to them, "Look, we have had enough. If you cannot come up with a decision, then we must take action."
We gave them until the fourth of April. And on the fourth of April, they did not have the regulations ready for issuance. So we developed an alternate plan: to bring our plight to the attention of the [American] people. (Ingram, 1981)
Taking a Stand by Sitting in
On the fifth of April, disabled activists took action in 10 cities across the country. With reason to fear that the 504 regulations were to be rescinded, they staged sit-ins in federal office buildings. Their demand: that the 504 regulations be signed into law. In most cities, the demonstrations were over by day's end. In the nation's capital, officials would not allow food and drink into the building, starving the demonstrators out. "But in San Francisco, [over 150] demonstrators stayed and stayed. They were not going to go away" (Ingram, 1981).
Mary Jane Owen was there.
After sleeping the first night on the hard floors, mattresses were delivered from the supplies of the State Health department. Food arrived from McDonald's, Delancy House's drug programs, the Black Panthers and Safeway. The Mayor himself scolded the federal officials for ignoring the needs of the uninvited guests and brought in shower attachments to be used in the tiled restrooms.
Some of us decided to call a hunger strike to confirm to ourselves and others our commitment to stay at any cost There were so many [heroes] -- Steve, who lay day after day and night upon night, [recording] events because -- he knew what was happening was important enough to risk his health; Jeff, who... wrote new words for old civil rights songs with which we loudly greeted federal employees [each] morning; the deaf woman who entered the building to teach a class in sign language and stayed; the mentally retarded woman who always injected a note of realism into our too abstract deliberations. (Owens, 1987, p.9)
On April 28, the demonstrators learned that Secretary Califano had signed the 504 regulations. They continued to occupy the building, however, until they had reviewed the final regulations and were satisfied with their content. On May 1st, the motley crew representing virtually every disability-disbanded, knowing that this experience would unite them forever.
BTW, Chava Levy hasn't updated her blog in a long time, but her "Yellow Sign" story, parts 1, 2, and 3 are good crip reading.
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