Accessibility and Disability Services and Student Disability Services joins The Mosaic Centerand all UMBC partners with honoring Black History Month.
Rediscover how some members of the Black Civil Rights Movement also
played essential roles as activists in the US Disability Rights
Movement, and paved the way for disability rights activists to influence
social change and legislation. Many people with disabilities were part
of both movements and continue to be today.
Dr. Sami Schalk presented at UMBC in March of 2023 on 504 and Beyond: Disability Politics and the Black Panther Partyvia the Dresher Center - in co-sponsorship with ADS and I3B.
Why Black Disabled History Matters by Dikko Yusef of WID provides a great summary.
Some of the intersectionality within the documentary Crip Camp shows
how intersectional being black and disabled can be - beyond the Black
Panthers. Further back in history, learn new things about the famous
Black figures who also had disabilities. For instance, Harriet Tubman
lived with epilepsy and narcolepsy, a reminder that disability is both
directly and indirectly linked to many forms of violence.
In the links described below, you may rediscover or learn for the
first time about Black history being made in this moment, and there is
so much to learn from the past. Research forays have been known to
start at Brad Lomax, and end up at the Wild Zappers,
a DC-based all black all deaf dance company - what new-to-you ancestral
influencers and history-makers will become front-of-mind to you? The
research of Dr. Stephanie Keeney Parks takes a racially nuanced approach to Autism via In A Different Key. In 2022 Megan Thee Stallion launched a website to support mental health. Haben Girma remains an important advocate for disability inclusion.
Important figures in Black History:
· Enter “Black
History” plus any disability (i.e. "autism," "dyslexia," etc.) into a
search engine and explore more about the intersectionality of
disability.
Explore Black History and Disability Rights:
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) has
a great article about the integral role Black disability rights
activists played in securing rights for all US citizens with
disabilities. (link)https://www.ncld.org/news/honoring-black-history-month-unsung-heroes-of-the-disability-rights-movement/ For
more on Brad Lomax, a leader in the 1977 protests that led to the
implementation of section 504 of the rehabilitation act, see this NYT
obituary (link) https:/www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/obituaries/brad-lomax-overlooked.html
Black Disabled and Proud: College Students with Disabilities is
a website by the HBCU Disability Consortium. Their page titled “Black
Lives Matter and Disability” speaks to the recent and daily making of
Black history as it intersects with disability. (link)https://www.blackdisabledandproud.org/black-lives-matter.html The page includes links to thoughtful articles as well as self-care info.
The Disability Visibility Project’s Black
Lives Matter page has podcasts (with transcripts) that explore the
individual experiences of people who are actively contributing
individually and/or organizing to raise awareness about being Black and
having a disability. (link)https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/tag/black-lives-matter/ Click through on the posts and find things like Jen White Johnson’s Black Disability Lives Matter mural (link)https://jenwhitejohnson.com/Black-Disabled-Lives-Matter-Mural-Project
The Zinn Education Project offers Teach The Black Freedom Struggle classes with ASL and transcripts via this link
- with the reminder that violence in any format may create disability.
If you are looking for UMBC-based disability resources - use these
links: