Disabled activists sit in for enforcement of U.S. disability rights legislation, 1977

In 1973, American president Richard Nixon signed the Rehabilitation Act into law after vetoing its first two iterations. The legislation was concerned with funding vocational rehabilitation, services meant to help disabled individuals find employment. It also sought to improve the government’s services with respect to disabled individuals more generally. Among the law’s mandates, Section 504 said that “no qualified individual with a disability should, only by reason of his or her disability, 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.” However, for disabled people to benefit, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Section had to interpret the law and develop regulations for its implementation and enforcement.

Nixon’s (and soon Gerald Ford’s) administration stalled on implementing Section 504, however, and the regulations remained unimplemented as Jimmy Carter took office in January 1977. Despite demands from the disability rights community that the President sign Section 504 into law immediately, he continued to delay. He delegated the task to his new HEW Secretary, Joseph Califano, who in turn created a task force, without any disabled members, to review it. As the task force went to work through February and March, it became clear to disabled advocates that Califano was rewriting and perhaps weakening the regulations.

On 18 March 1977, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD), an umbrella lobbying group created in 1974 that represented 45 groups, sent a letter issuing an ultimatum to President Carter: if he did not sign the regulations into law, without changing the original language, by 4 April, they would take action. Accordingly, the ACCD told disabled groups across the country to prepare to mobilize on 5 April.

4 April came and went with no signing, though Califano did try to excuse the delay and even expressed support for the planned demonstrations to push for the signing. This did little to pacify the activists present, who demanded an immediate signing and left. On 5 April 1977, groups assembled to picket and conduct sit-ins in the regional offices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and the headquarters in Washington, D.C.

None of these demonstrations succeeded in pressuring the president to sign Section 504 into law. In Washington, D.C. and Denver, the demonstrations lasted one day. The protest in D.C. ended because Federal Security Officers prevented any delivery of food to the 50 to 75 people occupying the sixth floor of the building. Notably, the General Services Administration sought to forcefully remove the demonstrators, but Califano and the HEW decided to starve them out. However, the protest in Denver ended voluntarily and, according to the protestors, successfully, because it opened lines of communication with the HEW. The Los Angeles demonstration lasted three days with some logistical support from local church groups and political support, especially from Congressman Tony Bielensen. When officials threatened to remove the fifteen disabled demonstrators performing the sit-in on its second night, he sheltered the demonstrators in his office in the HEW building. Still, the action petered out due to a lack of full community support and a failure to create momentum, according to Douglas Martin, the director of the Westside Center for Independent Living at the time.

The demonstration in San Francisco, however, went much differently. To start with, the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL) created the 504 Emergency Coalition in the Bay Area with the Independent Living Project in San Francisco and about thirty other disability rights groups. Throughout March, the CIL held strategy meetings and began explicitly threatening nonviolent action against the local branch of the HEW. They posted flyers advertising the demonstration for noontime at the HEW building in San Francisco. Importantly, they organized a number of committees with specific functions to support the protest, including writing speeches, outreach, media, fundraising, and more.

On 5 April, hundreds of demonstrators, both disabled people and their supporters, picketed outside the San Francisco HEW building, and hundreds marched into the building to occupy it. Of those, approximately 150 did not leave at the close of the business day at 5:00 p.m. Thanks to the outreach committee, the sit-in had widespread and significant support from major community groups and businesses. They had supplies of food, blankets, and other necessities from the Salvation Army and the Delancy Street Foundation, a well-established and politically powerful ex-prisoner group. By the third day, the Black Panthers and the Hispanic group Mission Rebels, as well as the local Safeway, were supporting the demonstration and bringing more supplies. Labor organizations like the International Association of Machinists (IAM), and the Teamsters and Longshoremen pitched in; the Federal Workers Union joined the effort, including some employees in the HEW building; churches cooked meals; and queer activist groups like Butterfly Brigade assisted as well.

Despite only planning to stay overnight, when it became clear that the other actions were all failing, the San Francisco demonstrators decided to stay until Califano signed and committed to implementing Section 504. Local news outlets wrote or broadcast at least one story every day about the protests. As a testament to their unique effectiveness, many State Government officials soon endorsed and assisted the demonstrators. On 8 April, the HEW regional director, Joe Maldonado, urged Califano to sign the regulations. The next day, the Director of California’s Rehabilitation Department, Ed Roberts, did the same, followed on 10 April by the state’s secretary of health, Mario Obledo. On 12 April, Congressman Phillip Burton endorsed the 150 demonstrators. Representative George Miller joined Burton on 15 April to hold congressional hearings on the regulation in the San Francisco HEW building. Another Californian Congressman, Tom Bates, sent a letter signed by 46 members of the state assembly to Califano calling on him to sign 504 as more and more politicians endorsed the demonstrators, including San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who provided showers and important hygiene supplies for the 150 activists, at the city’s expense.

On 19 April, the demonstrators escalated their action again, sending eighteen of their number to Washington, D.C. to lobby in person with support and endorsements from the Bay Area and transported and hosted by the International Association of Machinists. Though armed guards refused to allow them entrance into the HEW building, they demonstrated outside regardless, holding a candlelight vigil in front of Califano’s house for the entire night and following President Carter to his church. While they never actually spoke with Califano or President Carter, they secured other endorsements and gained the unqualified support of Senator Alan Cranston, one of the legislation's original sponsors. At this point, the demonstrations had gained national media attention.

Finally, on 28 April 1977, Senator Joseph A. Califano Jr. signed the unchanged regulations. The delegation returned to California and two days later, having completed their 26 day sit-in, the activists left the San Francisco HEW building. This had been the longest nonviolent occupation of a US federal building in the nation’s history. Their victory was, according to disability rights activist and participant in the sit-in, Kitty Cone, “the public birth of the disability rights movement,” a major milestone that proved to the nation that issues of disabilities are issues of civil rights and not matters of pity or rehabilitation.