D'Lil, Hollyn. 1977. “Activist in a wheelchair with an official during the Section 504 protests for disability rights in Washington, D.C.” Photograph from a protest for Section 504 disability rights. Library of Congress. Activist in a wheelchair with an official during the Section 504 protests for disability rights in Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2024640851/
The American Civil Rights Era is one of the most important periods of political activism in American history, yet one of the key aspects of the movement—which spans age, race, religious and political affiliation, gender, and other elements of a person’s or group’s identity—that is often overlooked is the Disability Rights Movement. This image depicts a man in a wheelchair engaged in political activism. This image defies the stereotype that disabled people are “helpless” and “need others” to speak up or engage in activism for them.
This photograph is from a protest to protect and enforce Section 504 legislation. The image is of an activist in a wheelchair meeting with a public official to discuss the need for the US federal, state, and local governments to do more to protect and enforce section 504 regulations, and to do more to create equality for members of the disability community across the United States.
“Activist in a wheelchair with an official during the Section 504 protests for disability rights in Washington, D.C” is a photograph of disability civil rights activists meeting with federal officials to discuss the need for section 504 laws being enforced in public spaces across the country.
- What does this photograph reveal to viewers about the effectiveness of nonviolent forms of activism?
- How does this image defy stereotypes about physically and/or mentally disabled people?
- How does the photograph’s composition (lighting, black-and-white vs. color photograph, foreground, background, etc.) impact the viewer’s perception of nonviolent forms of protest?
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards for ELA
New York State Next Generation Standard: 9-10W1: “Write arguments to support claims that analyze substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 9-10W1a: Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from counterclaims, establish and organize clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaim(s), reasons, and evidence.”
- Students can analyze the photograph’s composition, subject(s), setting, and description to formulate claims about the photographer’s intended message about the disability rights movement.
New York State Next Generation Standard: 11-12R9: “Make connections to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, and personal experiences. (RI&RL)”
- Students can view this image and compare it to other primary source images of the disabled community and those engaging in political activism surrounding disability rights.
- This image would pair well with the documentary film Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. The film chronicles the early stages of the Disability Rights Movement in the early 1960s to its present-day impacts on equality for disabled folks in the United States.
- This image can also work well with first-person narrative accounts of living as a disabled person. One text that captures a range of voices and stories is Disability Visibility, edited by Alice Wong. There is a YA version of the text available for younger readers.
- The image could be challenged for its connection to the history of American society’s disregard for members of the disability community. The photo includes a disabled subject who is in his wheelchair, which some viewers may find objectionable (due to the subject engaging in a political protest/political act) or emotionally difficult to view.
Links to resources for approaching those topics:
- Facing History and Ourselves has an entire section of its website dedicated to providing educators with resources and approaches for teaching disability history in their classrooms. Resources on this site include mini-lessons, curricula, book suggestions, and a link to the National Park Service series on disability history.
- “Nothing about Us without Us.” n.d. Facing History and Ourselves. Accessed December 17, 2024. https://www.facinghistory.org/ideas-week/nothing-about-us-without-us-promoting-disability-history-awareness-classrooms.
- EmergingAmerica.org is a website that is dedicated to helping educators use primary sources to teach about and include disability history in their classrooms. They have partnerships with local organizations in their home state of Massachusetts, as well as partnerships with the Library of Congress.
- “Emerging America.” n.d. EmergingAmerica.org. Accessed December 17, 2024. https://emergingamerica.org/accessing-inquiry/disability-history-through-primary-sources.
- Students can view this photograph of activists speaking at a demonstration in Lafayette Park, Washington, DC (1977). It is housed on the Library of Congress website, and it includes “the mother of disability rights,” Judith Heumann at the center, as well as other disabled protesters.
- D'Lil, HolLynn, photographer. [Activist speaking at a demonstration at Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C. with Judy Heumann (center) and others, including a sign language interpreter, during the Section 504 protests for disability rights] [graphic]. [April 1977] 1 photograph : safety negative ; film width 35mm (roll format) Rights advisory: Rights status not evaluated. For general information see "Copyright and Other Restrictions...," https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/res.195.copr
- Students can view this item in order to see how people with disabilities would like to be treated by everyone around them. This image of Jesse Jackson treating people humanely is what we all strive for in this country, regardless of what others see as a disability.
- Jenkins, R. Michael, photographer. Jesse Jackson shaking hands with disability advocate Justin Dart Jr., who is in a wheelchair, during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and Labor on a bill which became the Americans with Disabilities Act. Washington D.C, 1989. [17 July] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019646232/
- The National Women's History Museum has an entire biography page dedicated to Judith Heumann, one of the founding leaders of the disability rights movement in the United States. Source: Rothberg, Emma. n.d. “Judith Heumann,” Profile and Biographical Information.
- National Women's History Museum. Accessed December 17, 2024. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/judith-heumann.
- The National Museum of American History offers an entire page with links to key elements of the history of the Disability Rights Movement in the United States. Source: Civil Rights, Disability Rights.” n.d. The National Museum of American History. Accessed December 17, 2024. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/everybody/citizens/civil-rights-disability-rights.
- Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a documentary film that includes original footage of the early stages of the Disability Rights Movement in the United States, and follows some of the activists to their lives today. Source: LeBrecht, James, dir. 2020. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. 1st ed. 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFS8SpwioZ4.
- Students may view a photograph of a disabled Vietnam veteran, Bill Henshaw, in a wheelchair at a Vietnam Veterans Against the War demonstration during President Nixon’s inauguration in January of 1973. This image is found on the Wisconsin Historical Society’s website. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society, Unknown, “Vietnam Veteran in Wheelchair”, Image ID:49679. Viewed online at https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM49679