On That Midnight Train to Georgia

Well, not exactly midnight – more like the first thing smoking out of Rochester – 5:30 am!

I’m headed to Georgia on September 21st, where I’ll be interviewing Black disabled activists for We Were There, Too, the history initiative to highlight the contributions of Black disabled people to disability history, Black history and American history. I’ll be there from September 22-30.

In this age of the suppression of the achievements and history of Black people, and the attacks on the freedom, civil rights and the very existence of disabled people, it is very important that the history and stories are told, especially while some of the elders are still alive.

I will be filming and interviewing at least 5 individual Black activists who participated in the disability rights movement, as well as the surviving spouse, friends and colleagues of activists who have died.

As I tell the stories of the folks I’m interviewing, I want to weave in the story of the state, city or location where they grew up, and it’s history in relation to Black disabled people. For example, when segregated schooling ended for Black children, did that include Black disabled children? Were schools and institutions for disabled people ever segregated by race? This historical context adds dimension to the activists’ stories.

To that end, I’ll doing research at the University of Georgia and visiting their Disability Rights Museum. I’ll also be visiting other important places in the surrounding area, related to disability history.

Georgia is especially important in disability history and the fight for the rights and freedom of the disability community. 

Lois Curtis, a disabled Black woman, was the original plaintiff in the Olmstead v LC Supreme Court case. Lois was trapped in a mental health facility in Georgia. When her doctors determined that she could live in the community, the state of Georgia fought the decision, making every excuse in the book, including state budgetary constraints. Lois’s, and later, Elaine Wilson’s case would go the United States Supreme Court, where on June 22, 1999, it decided in favor of Lois and Elaine, stating that “Unnecessary institutionalization is discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act”. 

Now that the Olmstead decision and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act are under attack and serious threat, it’s important for me to tell the story of Georgia and the important, even critical contributions of Black disabled people in that state to disability history, Black history and ultimately, American history.