The Sit-In Begins

Interview

By: Kitty Cone

Date: 2000

Source: Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley

About the Author: Kitty Cone, a disability rights activist, helped lead demonstrations to force the implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In 2000, she was interviewed by David Landes of the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley.

INTRODUCTION

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is the most significant disability rights legislation prior to passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. The regulations opened up unprecedented opportunities for the disabled and introduced the concept of disability rights to American society.

Section 504 states that no handicapped individual who is otherwise qualified shall be excluded from participating in any program that receives federal funds. At the time of its passage, several states had already passed legislation intended to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. The models for Section 504, however, were Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that respectively outlawed discrimination against racial minorities and women. Legislators were concerned that disabled individuals who had completed vocational rehabilitation were unable to find work because of discrimination by employers.

Disability activists rejoiced at Section 504, but the legislation could not make an impact until the provisions of the bill were spelled out. In 1977, disabled activists, including Kitty Cone and Judith (Judy) Heumann, began demonstrations in San Francisco to force Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano to sign regulations implementing Section 504. On April 28, 1977, Califano signed. The regulations required that all new facilities built with federal money be accessible to people with disabilities and that all existing facilities had to be made accessible within two months, although the extension of three years could be granted where major alterations, such as the addition of ramps or elevators, were necessary. All public schools receiving federal funds were required to admit and educate children with disabilities and to make the necessary accommodations to do so.

PRIMARY SOURCE

The Sit-in Begins, April 5, 1977

Landes: Let's go to April 5. What do you remember about getting up that morning? [chuckles] Were you nervous? How did you feel as you were leaving home to go to San Francisco?

Cone: I have dead memory. I remember being nervous about what was going to happen. How were we really going to get in the building? Were they going to close the doors on us as we were going in? And having a sort of unclear feeling about—I had no idea what it looked like inside the building; I'm sure we had sent people over there to look at it, but I just didn't have any idea what it was like. I remember being up on the stage and looking out and thinking that it was a very good size crowd and that it was very broad in terms of disability and race and that it was a broad group of people. And then I remember that we all raced for the door. I think we all went in one door, but that can't be right. All the wheelchairs went up this ramp on the side of the building.

Landes: Did somebody say, "Let"s go inside!?' How did—

Cone: Yes, Judy—

Landes: Tell me something about Judy's speech.

Cone: I don't remember a thing about it except that it was decided that she was going to say, "Let"s go up there and ask them what's happening with the 504 regulations! Let's go up there and demand to know why they haven't issued them! Everybody, let's go!" Something like that.

Landes: That was the signal.

Cone: That was the signal, and we all just went in [laughs]. We went up to the director's office—his name was Joseph Maldonado, poor man. Judy was acting as the spokesperson, and she said— and the press, of course, was there taking pictures of every bit of it—"We want to know what's happening with the regulations." And this man knew nothing; he didn't even have a clue. He didn't even know what 504 was, as I recall [laughs]. He was just made mincemeat out of. He couldn't answer a single question about why they were watering down the regulations or when the regulations were coming out. We wanted assurances, and Judy said, 'We"re not leaving until we get assurances." So as many as we could, we got into his office and just took it over.

Landes: What were your feeling at that point, when you were inside his office?

Cone: See, this is the difference between me and Judy. This really is the difference. I totally admired Judy's ability to take this man who knew nothing and cream him. But I was feeling slightly sorry for him, actually, [laughs] because he didn't have a clue. But for public relations purposes, it was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. What do you mean you don't know? That kind of thing. It was great.

Landes: You're saying Judy was relentless.

Cone: Oh, always. Yes, fearless.

Landes: Were you relieved to be inside? Earlier you said you were worried that morning as to whether or not they would shut the doors. Once you arrived inside the building and you had a large number of disabled people inside, did you feel that you had taken the next giant step?

Cone: Well, we were in there. There were people inside the building who had no idea that there was going to be a sit-in [laughs]. So it was a process of educating and convincing them that they should stay.

Landes: Some people did not have sleeping bags and had made no preparations to stay more than a few hours.

Cone: Right. But a lot of people had come with a sleeping bag. I remember I brought a couple of pillows out of my van. My attendant stayed for a few days and then left. Some attendants stayed for the entire time; they were absolutely incredible—like Avril Harris, who ended up doing attendant work for the entire—she was just fabulous. Avril had a schedule: every morning she came and brought me two cups of coffee, and she would say, "Here, drink your coffee. I'll go get Judy up and then I'll be back for you." Then she'd go get Judy up—didn't take too long because there was nowhere to take a bath or anything [laughs]. Then she'd come get me up, and then she'd get up a few more people. Nancy Di Angelo was the person that she had come in with.

One thing that amazes me is the physical stamina—I think we were all operating on adrenalin overload for a month. We were going to bed—we would have these mass meetings of everybody in the building, every evening, to discuss how we should respond strategically, and sometimes they didn't end until one or two in the morning, and we'd go to bed and then we'd get up at five thirty in the morning so we could clean up and be prepared for when the workers came into the office the next day.

SIGNIFICANCE

Within ten years of the signing of the Section 504 regulations, people with disabilities constituted seven percent of all first-year college students. New buildings by institutions or agencies funded, even partially, by the federal government were built with ramps, elevators, Braille signage, and curbcuts. Older buildings, when renovated, were required to aim for accessibility. People with disabilities also found it somewhat easier to be hired, although unemployment rates remained substantially higher than in any other group of people.

Section 504 was limited in that it did nothing about groups or organizations that did not receive federal money. Enforcement of 504 was also spotty at best, and federal court decisions about its requirements were often confused and contradictory, tending to limit its effectiveness. As a result, entire aspects of American public life, such as mass transit and housing, continued to be inaccessible to people with disabilities. By 1983, the National Council for Disability had begun to push for a national law that would become the Americans with Disabilites Act (ADA).

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Scotch, Richard. From Good Will to Civil Rights: Transforming Federal Disability Policy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.

Yell, Mitchell L. The Law and Special Education. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill, 1998.

Zirkel, Perry A. Section 504: Student Issues, Legal Requirements, and Practical Recommendations. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 2005.