30 years of civil rights

ABOUT US | SUBSCRIBE | LINKS | E-MAIL EDITOR | HOME

Ragged
Edge
EXTRA!

Section 504:
30 years of a civil rights law

James L. Cherry, J.D., Ph.D. reports:

Sept. 25, 2003 -- President Nixon signed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 into law on September 26, 1973. Section 504. was the last sentence of that Act, but it became known as the first national civil rights act for persons with disabilities.

To get the 504 regs signed, hundreds of people with disabilities occupied federal buildings around the country for days. In San Francisco the sit-in closed the federal building for a month, and this demonstration still stands as the longest occupation of a federal building in this country. Participants in the actions travelled to DC and slept on floors, traveled in a rent-a-truck (since there were no accessible vans to speak of, and the truck came with a ramp), and met with legislators and Joseph Califano, the head of HEW, forcing the issue.
-- Eric Dibner

Read about the demonstrations from DREDF's website

Section 504 simply stated that:

No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was primarily a funding bill that already had been vetoed twice by President Nixon. During the passage process in 1973, this short 40-word sentence was tacked onto the end of the bill without much discussion before it headed for the President's desk.

The 30th anniversary of Section 504 will come and go without fanfare, speeches, or marches -- much like it began. Thirty years ago there were only a handful of people who actually knew about the passage of Section 504. But Section 504 -- and the Section 504 regulation issued pursuant to the federal court order arising under the Cherry v. Mathews legal case in 1976 -- were the legal foundation for the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990: the federal regulation developed under Section 504 was written into the ADA almost word-for-word.

There would be no ADA as written today without Section 504 and the Cherry case.

There is a solid reason why Section 504 was considered the first civil rights act for persons with disabilities. Section 504's wording is similar to that of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which included language to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin under federally funded programs.

I became interested in civil rights law while a law student at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. during the late 1960s where I had a front-row seat to watch the events of the civil rights movement. My chronic and progressive disability prevented me from completing my law degree at that time because I was denied accessibility accommodations, so I was angry and ready to take action.

When the Rehabilitation Act with its Section 504 became law, my first thought was to pursue a regulation following the same path as Title VI. For nearly three years an excellent team of lawyers at Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D. C. and I pushed for Section 504 regulations.

Some writers say that Section 504 was a "mystery." But it's not unusual for language of interest to be added to, or stripped from, legislation at the last minute. On occasion the news media will pick up on some of those maneuvers and expose "pork barrel" or "sweetheart deals" for selected businesses or groups. That is business as usual in Washington and in state capitols.

Section 504 itself did not specify that regulations be written for it -- and that's where my actions differed from others'. Most people wanted money -- grants and jobs -- from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. I wanted civil rights protections.

Shortly after Section 504 became law, I started requesting a timeline for the issuance of a federal regulation to implement it. My efforts -- mainly telephone calls -- were rebuffed, so I escalated my approach over the next 2 years to include letters, informal legal petitions and formal legal petitions. Finally I filed a lawsuit against the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) on Friday, February 13, 1976. Major disability organization and disability leader at the time rejected my idea of developing a regulation under Section 504.

In just a few months I won my Section 504 lawsuit against HEW Secretary David Mathews. The case was reported as Cherry v. Mathews, and HEW was placed under a federal court order to develop and issue the Section 504 regulation. Regulations were issued in early May, 1977 and the Section 504 we know today began to have an effect.

Posted Sept. 25, 2003

WHAT DO YOU THINK of what you've just read? Click to tell us.


ABOUT US | SUBSCRIBE | LINKS | E-MAIL EDITOR | HOME

This Website produced by Cliffwood Organic Works