It was March 12, 1990, when 60 of over 1,000 protesters left their wheelchairs, crutches, and canes behind to crawl up the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. The striking demonstration of the tangible consequences of inaccessible architecture was “crawling into history,” remembered Black disabled lesbian and member of protest organization ADAPT Anita Cameron. Just months later, the Americans with Disabilities Act passed.
During a May 13 congressional hearing discussing cutting Medicaid for over eight million Americans, ADAPT and other protesters entered, yelling, “No cuts to Medicaid!” Twenty-five were arrested. In 2017, Cameron was pulled from her wheelchair and carried out of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office. That year’s proposed cuts are considered the blueprint for 2025.
Cameron alone was arrested over 100 times for this fight. Now, as an elder after 37 years of intersectional activism, she’s had to step back: "Activists die sometimes doing the work, and I don’t want to die doing the work."
Protest is necessary. We’re seeing that now. But how do we continue resistance work as the people doing it face a myriad of collective and individual struggles and needs?
From poverty and ableism to gender persecution and mass incarceration, the state has declared war on our people. Even history's strongest leaders aren’t infallible or invincible. How can we support each other and adapt?