WEBVTT - Two 504 Figures: Kitty Cone and Brad Lomax 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:10.960 of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.360 Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.160 and I'm Holly Fryed. Today's episode was inspired by some 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.720 stuff that's been going on here in the United States 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:26.080 for a while now. Honestly hard to figure out exactly 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.640 when to start the clock on this one. But in 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.879 September of twenty twenty four, seventeen states filed a lawsuit 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:38.479 against the US Department of Health and Human Services. HHS 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.520 had issued its final rule implementing section five oh four 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.560 of the Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three, and those 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:51.480 seventeen states were challenging language from the preamble of that rule, 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.840 and that language indicated that gender dysphoria could be considered 0:00:55.840 --> 0:01:00.279 a disability under the law. This lawsuit also argued that 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:05.640 section five oh four as a whole was unconstitutional. We 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.399 ran a Saturday classic related to this in February of 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:10.920 last year when it was in the news. That was 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.840 six Impossible episodes from Sippins to fishi Ins, which talked 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.200 about the five oh four sit ins which pressured what 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.680 is now known as the Department of Health and Human 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.120 Services to establish the policies that would implement Section five 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.120 oh four. Back in nineteen seventy seven, when all this 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.520 was happening in the news, I also wanted to find 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.280 a new episode that was related in some way, but 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.400 I wound up just focused on other topics. That lawsuit 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.800 was effectively dismissed in October of twenty twenty five. Among 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.000 other things, the seventeen states that filed it dropped their 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:51.440 argument that Section five oh four was unconstitutional, and HHS 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:57.000 asued guidance, calling that preamble that mentioned gender dysphoria unenforceable 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.840 under the Day one executive order titled Defending Women from 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:07.320 Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal government. 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:10.919 The federal government's also basically on the same side as 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:15.160 the plaintiffs now when it comes to gender dysphoria, but 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.800 Section five oh four and the sit ins are still 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:25.040 deeply relevant. Other executive orders targeting DEI have been interpreted 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:30.000 as applying to things like disability and accessibility. Ban Those 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.040 and other related terms have showed up on things like 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.760 widely reported lists of words that are banned from applications 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.480 for government grants and head start funding. So the five 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.040 oh four sit ins have continued to be on my 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:48.240 mind even after that lawsuit was dropped. And today we're 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.120 going to take another look at section five oh four 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.760 and a couple of the people who were a big 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:55.440 part of this sit in. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.639 Should it briefly recap and add a little more detail 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.959 to it. Tracy just talked about. The Rehabilitation Act of 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:08.239 nineteen seventy three was focused primarily on vocational rehabilitation, meaning 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.760 services and programs intended to help disabled people prepare for 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.560 employment or to be able to work. It also authorized 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.920 programs to figure out how to meet the needs of 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.760 people for whom a vocational goal is not possible or feasible, 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.280 although that wasn't one of its primary purposes. It was 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.880 signed into law by President Richard Nixon, who vetoed earlier 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.600 versions of the law because he said that those would 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.000 be too expensive to implement. If you look at the 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.960 whole of this law, I would call it kind of 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.600 a mixed bag. At its core, it is a law 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:47.040 that views disabled people as needing to be rehabilitated, and 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.920 it's really underpinned by a mindset that a person's value 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.080 is tied to their ability to work. At the same time, 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.360 it included requirements and funding for programs and services that 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:04.280 really would make things more accessible, including interpreter services for 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:09.320 deaf people, reader services for blind people, telecommunication services, and 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:14.400 mobility services. It required federal agencies to assess things like 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.559 transportation barriers that could prevent disabled people from being able 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:22.520 to work or to participate in these programs. It also 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:27.360 required federal departments and agencies to create affirmative action plans 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.560 for the hiring, placement, and advancement of disabled people, and 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.320 to have a plan to meet the needs of those employees. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:39.400 If the words affirmative action gave you an internal yikes, 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.160 that just means taking proactive steps to make sure disabled 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.880 people were not being discriminated against and were being provided 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:52.040 with reasonable accommodations to access their workplace and do their work. 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:57.040 The Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three built on earlier laws, 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.160 and it was amended and adjusted by laws that came afterward. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.679 One of the parts that still discussed the most today 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.960 is Section five oh four, which was the broadest piece 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.839 of disability rights legislation in the United States until the 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.080 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In nineteen ninety, 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.040 when the Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three was passed. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:23.920 Section five oh four read quote, no otherwise qualified handicapped 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:29.479 individual in the United States, as defined in section seven six, shall, 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:32.800 solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.480 participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:42.040 to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.680 It has been amended by other laws since then, and 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:49.200 the language that's in place today uses the term disability 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.159 rather than handicap, as that is no longer really considered 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.760 the current way to manage those words today. Section five 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.120 oh four also specifies that it applies to the United 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.960 States Postal Service. The Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.480 is about forty pages long, and some of its other 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.200 sections had a lot more detail, including things like dollar 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:17.680 amounts for the funding and definitions of terms, references to 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.880 how this federal law relates to the states and to 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.719 state agencies. But section five oh four was just that 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.720 bit we read. It had no direction about how it 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:32.000 could actually be implemented, so the agencies that section five 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.560 oh four applied to had to draft rules and regulations 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.560 that would allow them to implement it. The Department of Health, Education, 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.839 and Welfare was selected as the lead agency, meaning that 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.760 they would draft their regulations first and then other departments 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:52.000 and agencies would follow based on those regulations, but not 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.400 much actually happened after Richard Nixon signed the Rehabilitation Act 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.640 into law on September twenty sixth, nineteen seventy three. He 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.360 resigned as president on August eighth, nineteen seventy four, and 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.480 his successor, Gerald Ford left office on January twentieth, nineteen 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.840 seventy seven. Their administrations had drafted regulations but had not 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:19.560 actually implemented anything. After Jimmy Carter took office, activists demanded 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.120 that the drafted regulations be put into place, but instead 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:28.160 Joseph Klifano, Carter's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, assigned 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.440 a task force to start reviewing them. A lot of 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.200 people interpreted this as a delaying tactic and an opportunity 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.000 for the government to try to water things down. This 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.840 is where the five oh four sients come into the picture, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.680 which we talked about in that Saturday classic that we 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.080 mentioned at the top of the show, which ran in 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:52.280 early twenty twenty five. In nineteen seventy seven, after years 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:57.680 of other advocacy, disabled activists started taking over HW offices 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:58.960 around the country. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.040 These occupations were brief. They ended within a day or 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.880 two after activists were either removed from the buildings or 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.960 they left on their own because they didn't have the 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.280 food or the supplies that they would need to stay 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.520 longer than that. But in San Francisco, disabled people and 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.600 their attendants occupied the HW office twenty four hours a 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:24.440 day for twenty six days. Eventually, the demonstrators selected a 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.480 delegation of people to go to Washington, d C. To 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:32.400 try to meet with legislators and Secretary Califano directly. The 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.960 International Association of Machinists helped pay for plane tickets from 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.240 San Francisco to Washington, d C. And, because there were 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.480 no accessible options for ground transportation, they also paid for 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.880 a moving truck with a lift that could accommodate wheelchairs. 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.760 After being turned away from the Washington, d C. Office 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.439 of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the demonstrators 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:00.680 had a candlelight vigil outside of Califano's house. They also 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.280 demonstrated outside the church where the president and his family 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:09.120 went to Sunday Services. Califano finally signed the regulations on 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.320 April twenty eighth, nineteen seventy seven, almost four years after 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.880 the law had been passed. We talked about this sit 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.199 in and the delegation to Washington in that Saturday Classic 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.280 that we mentioned earlier, but we didn't really talk about 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.319 any of the people who organized it or kept it going. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.480 One person we did mention briefly is Judith Human, who 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.719 went by Judy. She became disabled after surviving polio when 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.120 she was a child, and she was an enormous part 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.520 of this sit in and the disability rights movement more broadly. 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.360 She has been referred to as the mother of the 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.560 disability rights movement. In our earlier episode, we quoted her 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.559 as saying, quote, through the sit in, we turned ourselves 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:55.559 from being oppressed individuals into being empowered people. We demonstrated 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.720 to the entire nation that disabled people could take control 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.320 over our own lives, take leadership in the struggle for equality. 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:09.360 We overcame years of parochialism. We really cannot overstate what 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.640 a huge part of this sit in Judy Human was. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.360 She was deeply involved in organizing it and carrying it 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:20.360 out and just keeping people going day after day. She 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.800 was one of the people who traveled to Washington, d C. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.319 And some of the people who stayed behind in San 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:29.240 Francisco said that they kept occupying the HW building there 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:31.760 not just for their own rights and the rights of 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.800 other disabled people, because they just did not want to 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:35.640 disappoint her. 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.320 Today's episode is not focused on Judy Human. Though she 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.120 died on March fourth, twenty twenty three, she was seventy five, 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:46.760 and there are some various challenges with trying to cover 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.280 the life of someone whose death was in the very 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:53.679 recent past. Her work also continued until the very end 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.000 of her life, meaning a lot of it took place 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.000 in really recent years as well. She was the Assistant 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:03.080 Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:07.080 during the Clinton administration, and President Barack Obama appointed her 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.760 Special Advisor on Disability Rights for the US State Department. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.280 She was the first person to ever fill that role. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:15.920 Yeah, I know, Highy. There have been times we have 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.120 tried to do episodes on someone who just died, and 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.880 that has been something that I ultimately wish we had 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.959 done differently, at least once or twice. Yeah, there are 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.600 just various things that make it more difficult with someone 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.440 whose death was in the recent past. In addition to 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:38.080 all of that, her memoir Being Human, An Unrepentant Memoir 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.400 of a disability rights activist, was published just in twenty twenty, 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.080 and she was a big part of the twenty twenty 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.920 film Crip Camp a Disability Revolution. That film is about 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.440 Camp Janeed, which is a summer camp for disabled teenagers 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.320 that ran from nineteen fifty one to nineteen seventy seven. 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.040 Human worked as a counselor at the camp, and a 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.280 lot of other people who either went to or worked 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.120 at Camp Jeaneed wound up being a huge part of 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.800 the disability rights movement, including in the five oh four 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.959 sit Ins. The last episodes of her podcast Human Perspective 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.800 were also recorded just a few weeks before her death 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:19.000 and published posthumously. So there's really a lot of information 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.280 about her, a lot of it very recent, and a 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.280 lot of it in her own words. While we are 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.240 focused on two other people who are not as widely 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.560 known today, we just did want to acknowledge how important 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.160 Judy Human was to the five oh four sit Ins 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.480 and the disability rights movement before we move on. So 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.000 after we take a quick sponsor break, we will talk 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:51.600 about Kitty Kohane. The Section five oh four sit in 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.440 that took place in San Francisco was the work of 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.520 a large number of disabled people supported by a broad 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.120 coalition of allies and organizations, and Kitty Cone was a 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.119 big part of the reason why the demonstrators had that coalition. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.320 Curtis Selden Cone, known as Kitty, was born on April seventh, 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:16.520 nineteen forty four, in Champagne, Illinois. Her parents were Molly 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.760 Mattis Cone and Hutchinson Ingham Cone. Kitty's father was in 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.520 the military and the family moved several times when she 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.760 was a child, including to Japan. When Kitty was in 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:31.439 first grade, her teacher noticed that she walked on her 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.240 toes all the time, and the teacher pointed this out. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:34.840 To Kitty's mother. 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.760 It seems like Kitty's family wasn't really concerned at first, 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.880 but as her symptoms progressed, they took her to the doctor. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.840 It took a really long time to get an accurate diagnosis. 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:50.199 At first, doctors thought she had cerebral palsy and then polio. 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.160 Some of the treatments she received after these misdiagnoses seemed 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.960 to make things worse. Eventually, she was diagnosed with muscular 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.760 dystrophy at the age of fifteen, and she and her 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.840 family were told that she probably would not live far 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:05.079 into adulthood. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.439 In addition to changing schools when her father was transferred, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.440 Kitty also had to change schools for accessibility reasons, like 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.520 school buildings having lots of stairs that she could no 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:21.320 longer climb, and she often faced discrimination from teachers and staff, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.040 like being told that she wasn't allowed to participate in 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.960 activities because of her disability, or when she was at 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.560 boarding school, being housed away from the other students, which 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.080 was not only isolating, but it also forced her to 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.880 use a bathroom with a tub that she couldn't get 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.480 into or out of on her own. Between her father's 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.680 moves and issues like these, she changed schools more than 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.200 a dozen times over the course of her K through 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:47.080 twelve education. 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.320 When she was looking at colleges, con wanted to go 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.479 to an Ivy League school or maybe to a women's college, 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.640 but a lot of their campuses weren't accessible either. She 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.960 described her college to visions being made by her family. 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:06.040 She enrolled at the University of Illinois at Arpana Champagne, 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.120 which was close to some family members and also had 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.960 a significant number of other students who also used wheelchairs. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.920 In nineteen sixty three, Kohane's mother died. Kitty was only 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.400 nineteen at this point and she was still in college 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.520 and she took some time off after the funeral before 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.000 going back to school, and when she did, she really 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.640 threw herself into activism. Being interested in things like equal 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:34.640 rights and racial justice was not new to her. She 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.200 had started getting into fights about her classmates racism during 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.600 her early school years, and she had fierce disagreements with 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.960 her father over the subject of school segregation. After getting 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.360 back to college, she protested against apartheid in South Africa 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.600 and against the Vietnam War. She joined the Friends of 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.080 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and raised money for civil 0:15:56.160 --> 0:16:00.240 rights protesters who were arrested in the South. She got 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.040 arrested herself during protests, something that infuriated some members of 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.240 her family, including an uncle who was running for public 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:11.600 office and her father, who actually disowned her. They thought 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.600 that Kitty was making them look bad. Over time, Cone 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.280 started focusing more on activism than on class work, and 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.640 she actually left school in nineteen sixty seven without graduating. 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.200 At this point, Coan wanted to be a parent, but 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.760 her doctors had concerns about the physical effects that a 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.880 pregnancy would have on her body. She also still believed 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.200 that she was not likely to live long. She ultimately 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.840 decided to be sterilized. We have talked about the eugenics 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:46.840 program in the United States and involuntary sterilizations that were 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.280 enacted on disabled people. The impression that I have from 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.720 this and from what she said about it, was that 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:54.880 she made the decision that she felt like was best 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.520 for her based on the information that she had, and 0:16:57.560 --> 0:16:59.520 that some of the concerns that her doctor had She 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.280 really agrees with other things, maybe not so much, but 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.360 like this was an informed decision that she made for herself, 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.280 not something someone else decided for her. In the early 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:13.280 nineteen seventies, Cohne became a socialist, and she also came 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.760 out as a lesbian. She moved to Berkeley, California, and 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.200 started working with the Center for Independent Living. We talked 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.439 about that in our episode on Ed Roberts in the 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.600 Independent living Movement. We ran that episode as a Saturday 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.760 Classic on December third, twenty twenty two, Cone also became 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.119 active with the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities. 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.439 One of the things Cone talked about a lot was 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.560 how important it was for organizations that were working on 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:45.040 an issue to get the broadest level of support possible. So, 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.960 for example, she thought disability rights organizations should not connect 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.119 only with one another, but they should also connect with 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.280 abortion rights groups, anti war groups, women's rights groups, and 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.919 labor unions, forming a really powerful network of solid air 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.800 anywhere they could find some common ground with other people 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.600 who had other objectives. She made connections like this with 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:12.000 organizations all over the San Francisco Bay area, and that 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.920 coalition building was a huge part of why the five 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.639 h four sit ins in San Francisco went on for 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.280 almost a month, when most of the sit ins at 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.239 HW offices in other cities ended after just a day 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.840 or two. When disabled activists took over the San Francisco 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:33.520 HW offices, their support system included so many organizations. There 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.240 was Glide Memorial Church, a non denominational church dedicated to 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.639 social justice that was founded in San Francisco in nineteen 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:45.760 twenty nine, brick Hut Lesbian Cooperative, the Gay Men's Butterfly Brigade, 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.320 which coordinated safety patrols to protect gay men in the 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.399 Castro District. The Delancey Street Foundation, which was a nonprofit 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.560 providing residential services for people with substance use disorder or 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.439 who had been released from prison. Multiple labor unions, including 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:05.200 the International Association of Machinists, the Teamsters, the Federal Workers Union, 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.679 and the United farm Workers. The Black Panthers, which we 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.040 will be talking about more in just a bit. The 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.320 demonstrators also had some support from HW employees who helped 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.680 out where they could, and the San Francisco City government. 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.800 Mayor George Moscone brought in portable showers, getting them authorized 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.439 by the White House after HW officials turned him away. 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.520 And that's just a sampling of the support coalition. Cone 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.440 called it one of the broadest coalitions she had ever seen. Yeah, 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.359 in terms of ATW employees. Obviously, for the most part, 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:42.040 ATW like leadership did not want them there, but the 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.640 employees would be kind of like, here's where the soap is, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.959 and we made it so you can open this window. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.120 That kind of thing, a little subversive assist. Yeah, These 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.119 and other organizations supported the five zero four sit in 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.719 both within and outside the building, doctors and nurse offered 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.600 care to people who had complex medical needs, and volunteers 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.840 from across multiple organizations provided attendant care, like helping people 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.920 dress and take care of their hygiene. Organizations donated food 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.040 and blankets and cots to sleep on, soap and cleaning supplies. 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.480 While people occupied the offices in the building, other supporters 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.040 picketed outside, and they signed petitions, and they contacted their 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.960 legislators demanding action on the five oh four regulations. This 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.720 coalition also involved organizations for people of different disabilities, who 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.560 sometimes had very different needs and perspectives. For example, the 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.960 proposed five oh four regulations got a lot of criticism 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.879 from deaf people because part of the focus was on 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:49.800 mainstreaming or assimilating disabled people into non disabled culture. But 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.760 a lot of deaf people saw and still see deafness 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.720 as a unique culture with its own language and norms, 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.560 not necessarily as a disability, and not something that should 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.560 be a similar laid it away but organizations for the 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.040 death were also part of the sit in, with death 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:09.080 activists taking the lead with communicating with people outside the building, 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.920 signing conversations through the windows. After authorities cut off the phones. 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:19.000 All these intersecting layers of support helped the demonstrators deal 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.080 with the realities of living in a government office twenty 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.160 four hours a day for almost a month. That would 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.320 be uncomfortable for pretty much anybody, but it came with 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.520 additional specific challenges for a lot of the five h 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.600 four demonstrators. A lot of people had particular medical and 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.879 physical needs and no real way to accommodate them the 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.840 way they would where they normally lived. For some demonstrators 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:47.040 who relied on specialized medical equipment or skilled nursing, this 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:49.800 could actually be life threatening, so people did a lot 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.199 of improvising and jury rigging and just doing their best 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.120 with the help of supporters both inside and outside the building. 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.280 Kitty Kohane in particular, dealt with a lot a lot 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:02.560 of pain over the course of the sit in and 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:04.639 had to take a lot of painkillers to try to 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.680 deal with it. She also needed to be turned over 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.040 during the night, and that was something that other people 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:11.800 helped her with over the course of the sit in. 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.000 Kitty Cone was one of the people chosen to be 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:17.680 part of the delegation to Washington, d C. To discuss 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.720 the five oh four regulations with legislators. The coalition that 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:25.040 Cone had built helped arrange and fund the trip, including 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.880 the Machinists' Union, which we mentioned earlier. After the new 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.120 regulations were signed, Cohne gave a victory speech in which 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.280 she said, in part quote, we showed strength and courage 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.399 and power and commitment that we the shut ins or 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.000 the shutouts, we the hidden, supposedly the frail in the week, 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.879 that we can wage a struggle at the highest level 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:49.000 of government and win. Cone was also one of the 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:51.680 many people to point out the importance of the five 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.359 oh four sit ins in the disability rights movement, including 0:22:55.720 --> 0:23:00.520 growing awareness of how accessibility was a political issue. She 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.639 was quoted as calling it quote the public birth of 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.040 the disability rights movement. For the first time, disability was 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.240 really looked at as an issue of civil rights rather 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:14.439 than an issue of charity and rehabilitation at best, pity 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:15.320 at worst. 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:18.800 After the five oh four sit ins, Cohane's work as 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:23.720 an activist continued to be focused on building coalitions among organizations. 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:28.000 This included connecting disability rights organizations and the League of 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:32.119 Women Voters. When Bay Area Rapid Transit, which commonly known 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:36.679 as BART, proposed removing agents from stations. Yeah, there were 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:38.600 a lot of reasons that a person might need to 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:41.679 talk to a human employee at a transit station, and 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:44.679 a lot of those reasons applied mainly to women and 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:47.880 to disabled people more than they did to non disabled men. 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:52.159 Although the federal government had recognized the civil rights of 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:56.560 disabled people through Section five oh four and its associated regulations, 0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:00.479 in practice after those regulations were signed, a lot of 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:04.520 things didn't really change that much. For example, as Cone 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.520 tried to travel for her activism work, she often found 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:12.040 that things like hotels and public transportation were still inaccessible 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:16.480 to someone who used a wheelchair. Around nineteen eighty, Cone 0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:21.240 started a relationship with Kathy Martinez, who was blind. Cone 0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:24.439 talked about getting around town with her and her power wheelchair, 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:28.840 and Martinez keeping up with her on roller skates. The 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:32.000 two of them traveled together, including to Nicaragua, which had 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:37.200 a large population of disabled people who had experienced spinal injuries, amputations, 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:43.040 and other injuries due to the Nicaraguan Revolution. Around this time, Cohne, 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:46.800 who had struggled with alcohol misuse, became sober and joined 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:48.520