Make America Learn History Again: Judy Heumann and the battle for section 504
Make America Learn History Again: Judy Heumann and the battle for section 504
It’s real history, force fed to the All American Men in my inbox
This post contains sensitive content on discrimination against disabled people . Reader discretion is advised.
She couldn’t go to school with the rest of the kids.
She felt like a burden.
Judy Heumann had been unable to walk after having Polio at 18 months old.
Judy wanted to be a teacher, but there had never been a teacher in a wheelchair before, and most schools weren’t accessible. They weren’t accessible because they didn’t want to be. The New York Board of Education turned down her teaching license application because of her “paralysis of both lower extremities, sequels of poliomyelitis.”
Judy decided to keep fighting to become a teacher. Not even the ACLU would help her. The civil rights act of 1964 had given protection to many people, but not to the disabled. Many people came out in support of her. Roy Lucas, who would later gain fame in the Roe V. Wade case offered to represent her. Her passion to become something no one else had, was inspirational to many other people.
She did eventually win and was given her teaching license! But, this was just one fight. “The perfect ending to this story about life-altering serendipitous moments would go something along the lines of ‘So then I got my license, found a job, and lived happily ever after.’ But that’s not how it went…”
(As a reminder I do not know these men. They are messaging a satirical Facebook profile of me as a conservative.)
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