Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., And Disability Rights

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The 54 million Americans with one or more disabilities and their friends, family, and caregivers, should think particularly deep about the impact the civil rights leader had on America and the world. In 39 years of life, his non-violent activism broke down barriers between races, destroyed stereotypes, won him the Nobel Peace Prize, and made him one of the most revered figures in American history. While racial equality continues to be the subject of heated debate, great strides toward equal rights were made as a result of Dr. King's work. Partly as a result of the civil rights movement galvanized by Dr. King, civil rights issues for disabled Americans have gained national attention, and great progress has been made; however, some discrimination and stereotyping against people with disabilities remains parts of everyday life.

Most Americans are familiar with images of facilities segregated by race that are not only separate, but wholly unequal. In fact, many people alive today could once have taken this picture in their own neighborhood. How many disabled Americans today can photograph a single drinking fountain, too tall to be reached from a wheelchair, in a nearby business?

Dr. King made an enormous impact by impressing upon the world that separate is not equal. During Dr. King's lifetime, he saw Jim Crow laws abolished that prevented whites and minorities from mingling in marriage, schools, and even swimming pools. Similarly, as recently as 1970, New York State prohibited persons with obvious disabilities from appearing in public, in order to protect the sensitivities of people without disabilities. During the same time period, many disabled Americans were sterilized against their will. Today, most white Americans would cringe at the sight of a segregated drinking fountain, and most able bodied people would shrink away from supporting the sterilization of people with disabilities.

The disability rights movement that eventually led to the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, "adopted many of the strategies of the civil rights movement before it," according to Arlene Mayerson. "Like the African-Americans who sat in at segregated lunch counters and refused to move to the back of the bus, people with disabilities sat in federal buildings, obstructed the movement of inaccessible buses, and marched through the streets to protest injustice. And like the civil rights movements before it, the disability rights movement sought justice in the courts and in the halls of Congress."

In 1916, 13 years before Dr. King was born, Lewis Terman wrote in The Measurement of Intelligence, "Black (and other ethnic minority children) are uneducable beyond the nearest rudiments of training... Children of this group should be segregated in special classes and be given instruction which is concrete and practical." The inferior socio-economic status of black Americans was attributed to their race, not to societal barriers preventing equality. Today, it is understood that race does not determine intelligence or worth. But today, the median annual household income of working-age people with disabilities is $36,300, almost $12,000 less than the median household income overall. Many able bodied Americans would attribute this discrepancy in earning power to disabilities themselves, not to the societal barriers preventing equal access to mobility, employment, transportation, and much more.

This Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, take a few moments to contemplate human equality and the ways that people to this day are oppressed and neglected. Civil rights should be supported by and for every American; black or white, disabled or able bodied, equal access and opportunity should be available to all. Today, consider how the disability rights movement can emulate the work of Dr. King by continuing to unite people with disabilities and the able-bodied to fight discrimination.