- Person
- Judith Heumann
- Lived
- 1947–2023
- Field
- Disability rights
- From
- American
The story
Judith Heumann was born in Philadelphia in 1947 to German Jewish immigrants; many of her relatives had been killed in the Holocaust. She contracted polio at 18 months old and used a wheelchair for most of her life. Her local public school refused to admit her as a young child, calling her a fire hazard, and in 1970 New York's Board of Education denied her a teaching license on the same grounds. She sued, the case settled, and she became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City.
In 1973 Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act, whose Section 504 barred discrimination against disabled people in programs that receive federal funds. But a law needs regulations before it can be enforced, and from 1973 to 1977 none were published. A court ruled that they must be issued but set no deadline. In 1977 the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Joseph Califano, was still refusing to sign meaningful rules, and a task force with no disabled members had drawn up weaker versions.
On April 5, 1977, disabled activists held demonstrations at federal offices in ten American cities. In San Francisco, after a rally of more than 500 people, about 150 protesters led by Heumann, Kitty Cone and Mary Jane Owen occupied the fourth floor of the regional Health, Education and Welfare offices and refused to leave. They slept on the floor and under desks, taped up an air conditioner to keep medicines cold, and helped one another: deaf occupiers signed messages through the windows to interpreters on the street, and blind people and quadriplegics read for and assisted each other. Outside groups, including the Black Panther Party, which brought hot meals every day, kept them supplied.
On April 28, 1977, Califano signed the Section 504 regulations, along with regulations for the Education of All Handicapped Children Act. The protesters left the building on May 4. Accounts of the length vary from 25 to 28 days, but the occupation is described as the longest sit-in at a federal building in American history.
The victory had far reaching effects. Programs that received federal money now had enforceable rules forbidding them to shut out disabled people. The Rehabilitation Act became the most important disability rights law before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the sit-in brought together people with many different disabilities in a shared fight that showed they could organize and win.
Why it matters
Because of the rules the 504 sit-in won, programs and services in the United States that receive federal funds may not shut out people with disabilities.
About Judith Heumann
Daughter of refugees from Nazi Germany who led the 504 sit-in, helped win the Americans with Disabilities Act and carried disability rights into governments around the world.
More about Judith Heumann
Sources
- Judith Heumann Wikipedia
- 504 Sit-in Wikipedia
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act U.S. Department of Labor
- About Judy Heumann JudithHeumann.com
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.