Dozens of NYU students and faculty convened last week for a hands-on lecture and discussion series about civil rights and disability rights activism, as part of NYU’s 21st annual MLK Week.
The Wednesday event, titled How the Civil Rights Movement Shaped Disability Rights, featured two lectures about what activism shaped the issues individually before a concluding talk detailing how the Civil Rights Movement directly inspired disability activism. Speakers unpacked the interconnectedness of social movements, arguing that modern disability rights organizing follows directly in the footsteps of 1950s and ‘60s Black activism. Organized by the Moses Center for Accessibility and Inclusive Culture and Center for Disability Studies, the event took place at the Kimmel Center for University Life and staged group activities between lectures.
“The Civil Rights Movement, in some ways, was a blueprint for social justice movements to come after,” Capria Berry, the director for Disability Inclusive Culture at the Moses Center, said at the event. “None of this happened in a silo.”
CDS assistant director Kevin Gotkin, who led the lecture on disability rights, cited the Black Panther Party’s support for the 504 sit-in in 1977, where protesters demanded better accessibility regulations in San Francisco. They also pointed to similarities in language between the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, foundational legislation that won support for disabled people seeking employment.
Between lectures, student organizers invited attendees to work together to order timelines of major civil rights and disability rights milestones — such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia and the 1990 Capitol Crawl protest.
Tisch sophomore and student organizer Liam Redford explained to attendees that students with disabilities often attend specialized schools, making it easier for disability rights activism to be overlooked in mainstream curriculums.
“Children with disabilities are automatically excluded and isolated in schools,” Redford, who is minoring in disability studies and American Sign Language, said. “It creates an invisibility.”
CAS professor and former CDS co-director Faye Ginsburg, Moses Center Assistant Vice President Robyn Weiss and filmmaker, author and disability rights activist Simi Linton were among the event’s attendees. Steinhardt junior Tianyi Wang said that, as an autistic woman, she felt inspired by the day’s discussions.
“It’s been really inspiring to see the intersection between race and disability that isn’t discussed in mainstream media,” said Wang, who described herself as a survivor of Applied Behavior Analysis — a therapy that aims to help autistic children “improve their social interactions.” “I do think it’s hypocritical for this event to mention more about integration rather than abolition. It really bothers me especially when I have been really abused under these systems.”
As part of MLK Week programming, the event emphasized the importance of coalitions, as well as the inclusion of women and faith-based communities. This year’s theme for the week was “Futures Unbound,” which focused on looking for ways to build hope and imagine possibilities through a slate of events, including Thursday’s “Boundless” panel keynote discussion.
“‘We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope,’” said Berry, referencing Martin Luther King Jr.’s Shattered Dreams sermon. “What I have taken away from this quote is that there may be short setbacks that happen along the way, but progress, being our ultimate goal, is still attainable and achievable”
Contact Benni Willlis at [email protected].