Many of you may not realize it, but today is a very historic day in the disability community. It was thirty years ago today that the 504 demonstrations began. Contrary to some popular beliefs, they didn’t just happen in San Francisco, but in Washington, D. C., and in all 10 of the regional headquarters cities. I know this because I was one of the people setting this up. They were conducted under the aegis of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD). ACCD was a national umbrella group of national, regional, and local organizations of people with disabilities that was founded in 1975, at the annual meeting of the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped as it was known in those days.

While ACCD dealt with many of the issues of the day, its main focus was on insuring that implementing regulations were written and signed for section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Congress passed this act over President Nixon’s second veto on September 13, 1973. It was the first piece of civil rights legislation written for people with disabilities, and it required any entity receiving federal financial assistance to take steps to avoid discriminating on the basis of disability. However, what constituted discrimination and what to do about it when it occurred was left to the Department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW) to articulate in implementing regulations. President Nixon had vetoed the measure twice and was occupied by a little matter called Watergate. President Ford ordered that the regulations be written. They were written and ready for Secretary Matthews’ signature on January 18, 1977. The Secretary was 48 hours away from returning to his post as the President of the University of Alabama, and having to live under these regulations, so he refused to sign them despite an order from President Ford to do so. The education and medical professions, along with other industries you would think would endorse this measure were extremely vocal in their opposition to these regulations. "Leave us alone and we will naturally do the right thing!" No one explained what had been stopping them!

With the change in administration, Joseph Califano became the new Secretary of HEW, then the second largest agency in the government. Only the Pentagon was larger. He declared that there would be a sixty day delay in signing the 504 regulations. Given the Secretary’s new post, it was not an unrealistic action, but the disability community was furious. ACCD let HEW know that if the regulations were not signed by April 4th, we would be demonstrating on the 5th! Peter Labasi, the General Counsel for HEW, called ACCD to see how many people would be coming. They wanted to prepare coffee. We were not being taken seriously!

April 4th, came and went without signed regulations. April 5th, started with a press conference on Capitol Hill. As the Chairman of ACCD’s Public Awareness Committee, I should have led it, but I was working for the White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals, a temporary agency under HEW. As a federal employee I was subject to Hatch Act prohibiting federal employees from engaging in political activity. My bosses were looking the other way to let me help organize this event. I didn’t want to push my luck by being too visible, so I let my good friend and committee member, John O’Rourke, lead the press conference.

We entered the HEW West Portal Building (later named for Hubert Humphrey) 300 strong at 1:00 on Tuesday, April 5. We went to the sixth floor and occupied the Secretary’s reception area until 6:00 Wednesday evening. Many were students from Gallaudet College, but the crowd also included Eunice Fiorito, Deborah Kaplan, Ralf Hotchkiss, T. J, O’Rourke, Lou Rigdon, and others that many of you would recognize. We also had demonstrations in the cities the Federal Government has designated as headquarters cities in the ten regions into which the government has divided the country–Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle. Some, as in Atlanta and Chicago, only lasted a few hours. Washington, and New York, lasted overnight. Only in San Francisco, did they stay for 28 days.

When we arrived in Califano’s office, he was in Atlanta, touring the Center for Disease Control. Peter Libassi called him and told him he needed to come back. Negotiations went on that afternoon and all the next day. During that afternoon, I was able to go down the hall to talk to the AP and UPI guys covering HEW. Later that evening, GSA guards were posted on both sides of the reception area. They were big; they looked mean, and warm and fuzzy was not in their vocabulary! After they came, we were only allowed to go to the bathroom. If we went anywhere else, we would be ejected. There were no in and out privileges. We were not allowed to bring in food, and Mayor Washington did not arrange for accessible showers as Mayor Muscone did in San Francisco. We were in the Secretary’s office, and they wanted us out!!

The depth to which the GSA guards wanted us out became clear about 8:30 or 9:00 Wednesday morning. An HEW employee who had seen the morning reports, threw a bag of apples into the reception area as he got off the elevator. A GSA guard rushed in, grabbed the bag of apples, and an apple from a girl from Gallaudet, and pushed her onto the floor. They then detained the employee for a couple hours. These really were not nice people. We finally received the coffee Labasi had called about later that morning.

Covering our sit-in were Lea Thornton from CBS, Doug Kiker of NBC, and Joe Templeton from ABC, along with local reporters from Washington broadcasting and print, and other nearby cities. There really were only three networks at that time. Negotiations continued through Wednesday, and the press kept after me to tell them what was going on. No one was telling me anything, and this led to tension. We did get decent coverage that day and in the few days that followed.

About 5:00 that evening reality hit hard. Our numbers had dwindled to 60. We were facing another night without food or medicine, and we speculated that if we tried to stay a second night we would probably be arrested. At 6:00, we left in a group with a small press contingent. A week or so later, Judy Heumann, Hale Zukas, and their merry band came to Washington, to hold candlelight vigils in front of Secretary Califano’s home, and demonstrate in front of HEW and the White House. Their presence was definitely known and felt.

On April 28, 1977, Secretary Califano signed the regulations implementing Sec. 504. About 90 days later, people could start filing complaints. Judy and company flew back to California, and the last sit-in ended victoriously after 28 days.

The disability community was elated. We had won a big one against the federal government, but we were tired. Advocacy on that level was hard work, and time consuming. We had lives to get back to. There were some who said,"Hey, where ya’ going? We still have to make sure the law is implemented properly." However, the voices sounded faint–like the voice of hope in the bottom of Pandora’s box. People were tired, and few would listen. As it turned out, when Secretary Califano signed the 504 regs, he also signed the death knell of ACCD. The activities dwindled. There were fewer and fewer people at the annual meetings. Finally, in 1982, with dissolution as the only question on the agenda, ACCD failed to raise a quorum. The question was answered with deafening silence.

The American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities faded into disability history, and in the intervening quarter century, we have not developed a unifying body to replace it. We have thousands of disabled organizations, but we are still not organized. We do not vote in a block. We do not present a strong united front to the press. In my opinion, there are a lot of things a strong umbrella group could do for us that are just not being done.

I know many of you know the story I have told, but it is good to remember from time to time. A whole generation of disabled children has grown up since these events that are still so vivid to those of us who lived them. Millions of adults have joined our ranks in the interim. April 5th will never be remembered in the same way as July 4th, or Presidential birthdays, but it truly was a day to declare and augment our independence.