History Teaches Us to Resist by Mary Frances Berry

Author:Mary Frances Berry [Berry, Mary Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0570-5
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2018-01-19T05:00:00+00:00

DISABILITY PROTESTS

When Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, the disability rights advocates who voted for him demanded that he sign and implement the regulations immediately. Instead, Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) secretary Joseph Califano appointed a task force to review the regulations. Fearing dilution of the regulations, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities insisted that he proceed with signing and implementation. Activists also engaged in nonviolent direct action. For twenty-five days in April 1977, about 150 disability rights activists took over the fourth floor of a federal building in San Francisco. Some carried signs reading “Handicapped Human Rights Sign ADA.” The protesters announced they would stay until the regulations were issued. They received some outside assistance. By the third day of the protest, McDonald’s, Glide Memorial Church, Safeway, and the Black Panther Party gave food. Safeway also gave medicine, and a Hispanic group, the Mission Rebels, provided hot breakfasts. The Salvation Army provided food, coffee, and blankets. On day three HEW officials turned off hot water, reduced phone lines to two pay phones, and limited all other phones to incoming calls. HEW also prohibited occupiers leaving the building from reentering.6

The Black Panther Party newspaper covered the protests in its April and May 1977 issues. The coverage included a photo of Dennis Billups, described in one Black Panther feature article as “a young blind Black man from San Francisco . . . one of the active and enthusiastic participants in the ongoing occupation of the HEW offices by handicapped and disabled people fighting for their civil and human rights.”7

A group of protesters also entered the HEW headquarters building in Washington where Califano and senior officials had offices. When Califano met with them on April 4, they demanded issuance of the regulations without delay; when he didn’t promise to do so, they walked out. The next morning, three hundred people gathered downstairs in HEW’s headquarters and in other offices around the country. They were helped by the International Association of Machinists; McDonald’s also gave food, but the local community didn’t come out to join the protest. Califano stayed in his office the first night. He had phone service cut off and allowed them a doughnut and cup of coffee in the morning. On April 6, 1977, the sit-in ended and the occupiers left the building. They said that no food or access to medicine and unsympathetic guards made it impossible to stay.

In other cities, protests failed to gain momentum. But in DC, newly arrived protesters from San Francisco rented a windowless Hertz truck with a hydraulic tail lift to travel to Califano’s house and hold a candlelight vigil until dawn. Most stayed at the Luther Place Memorial Church, sleeping on foam mattresses on the floor and eating food provided by the local Washington International Machinists Union. They also demonstrated outside Carter’s church and held vigils outside HEW. Reporters questioned Califano when he went to a hotel event to speak. On April 28, 1977, Califano signed the existing Section 504 regulation.8

In March

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