Everyday throughout February, for Black History Month, Disability Rights North Carolina is celebrating Black disability justice leaders, influencers, and innovators!
Brad Lomax (1950-1984)
Brad Lomax (1950-1984), a Civil Rights leader and disability rights activist, brought together the two movements to present a united front in the fight for equity.
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his teens, Lomax founded the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and organized the first African Liberation Day demonstration in 1972. A move to Oakland, California, where Lomax was unable to access public buses without being physically lifted onto them, launched his participation in the disability rights movement.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”, but she was also disabled. As a child in New York, she was considered legally blind due to her shortsightedness, and she would go on to write in great detail about her cancer diagnosis and treatment in later years.
Audre Lorde is remembered as a trailblazer, a hero and a phenomenally skilled writer, thinker and activist.
Barbara Jordan (1936-1996)
Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) was the first African American to serve in the Texas senate and the first African American woman from a southern state to serve in congress in 1973. She was a fierce advocate for voting rights, minimum wage laws and the civil rights movement. Jordan used a wheelchair for much of her later years due to Multiple Sclerosis.
Donald Galloway (1938–2011)
Donald Galloway (1938–2011) was a fierce advocate for the rights of people with disabilities and for the inclusion of people of color in the disability rights movement. Born in Washington, D.C., Galloway was blinded by an accident as a teenager but refused to let his disability interfere with his education or his activism—he was active in his local junior NAACP chapter and was a junior member of the National Federation for the Blind.
Galloway’s work at the intersection of racial and disability justice helped ensure that Black voices became part of the disability rights conversation. Through his work in the independent living community and his legal efforts to ensure people with disabilities retain their Constitutional rights, Galloway made a major impact that resonates to this day.
Haben Girma (born July 29, 1988)
The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change. She received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Chancellor Angela Merkel have all honored Haben.
Haben believes disability is an opportunity for innovation, and she teaches organizations the importance of choosing inclusion.
Tiffany Hammond
Tiffany Hammond is the creator and voice behind Fidgets and Fries. She a Black, Autistic mother, advocate, and storyteller who uses her personal experiences with Autism and parenting two Autistic boys to guide others on their journey.
Her activism is rooted in challenging the current perception of Autism as a lifelong burden, cultivating a community that explores the concept of Intersectionality, challenges dominant culture thinking on matters of race, and inspiring thought leaders through storytelling, education, and critical discourse.
Imani Barbarin
A graduate of Eastern Univerity with a degree in Creative Writing and a minor in French from the Sorbonne, Imani Barbarin writes from the perspective of a Black woman with Cerebral Palsy. She specializes in blogging, science fiction and memoir.
Imani posts stories about discrimination against people with disabilities, marketing and social justice campaigns, and racial justice.
Learn more about this important leader
Wesley Hamilton 1988-
Wesley Hamilton, is a professional Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, and Student of Life. After a shooting left him paralyzed, Wesley transformed his life and is helping others with disabilities.
He launched Disabled But Not Really, otherwise known as DBNR, a nonprofit that works with clients to tailor exercises to their physical capabilities. The charity’s overarching aim has always been to help inspire those living with disabilities to live life for themselves.
Ever Lee Hairston
Ever Lee Hairston is one of the countless Black leaders who work in the field of blindness. She is also an important civil rights leader – and her experience with the civil rights movement inspired her to help others who are blind, like her. Her advocacy was ignited in 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited North Carolina Central University, where Ever Lee was in her third year of earning a teaching degree.
You can read even more about Ever Lee Hairston’s amazing life by checking out her book, Blind Ambition: One Woman’s Journey to Greatness Despite Her Blindness.
Lois Curtis (1967–2022)
Lois Curtis (1967–2022) was the lead plaintiff in Olmstead v. L.C., the case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that warehousing people with developmental disabilities in deficient mental institutions, when they are capable of being integrated into community settings in group homes or host homes, constituted discrimination under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.
She was confined for nearly two decades in institutions, all along wishing that she could be transferred to a more suitable setting, like a group home in her own community.
The 6-3 opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared that “confinement in an institution severely diminishes the everyday life activities of individuals, including family relations, social contacts, work options, economic independence, educational advancement and cultural enrichment.”
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Decades after they were spoken in 1964, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer’s words continue to resonate for their illustration of the plight of Black people, particularly in the American South, in the fight for civil rights. Hamer, who lived with several disabilities, led the charge in registering Black people in Mississippi to vote, and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
Leroy F. Moore Jr.
Leroy F. Moore Jr., Founder of the Krip-Hop Nation, is one of the founding members of National Black Disability Coalition and an activist around police brutality against people with disabilities.
Since the 1990s, he has written the column “Illin-N-Chillin” for POOR Magazine.
His cultural work includes film documentary, Where Is Hope, Police Brutality Against People with Disabilities, spoken-word CDs, poetry books and children’s book, Black Disabled Art History 101 published by Xochitl Justice Press.
Harriet Tubman
Today we are spotlighting Harriet Tubman!
Irrefutably one of the greatest Black liberators of all time, Tubman made thirteen recorded trips back into Maryland’s treacherous slave territory to free 60-70 enslaved people and later freed nearly 800 others in South Carolina as the leader of an armed expedition for the Union Army.
After being struck by a 2-pound weight as an enslaved teenager, Tubman began experiencing what she then referred to as sleeping spells but what Black historians now believe were most likely epileptic seizures.
Joyce Ardell Jackson
In 1947, Joyce Ardell Jackson was born in Berkeley, California. At the age of 12, she contracted arthritis and underwent more than fifty operations throughout her life. Through perseverance, Jackson graduated from Santa Clara University and began working at the Center for Independent Living, a decision that would change the trajectory of career.
In April of 1977, Jackson participated in a disability rights sit-in led by disability rights advocate Judy Heumann. Along with approximately 150 severely disabled demonstrators, Jackson occupied the San Francisco regional offices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) for over a month, demanding that Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 be enforced. As the nationwide protests continued, Jackson was one of twenty activists sent to Washington, D.C., to meet with Carter administration officials.
Anil Lewis
Ever-effective in his advocacy, Anil Lewis is the Executive Director of Blindness Initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind. His incisive leadership has help implement inclusive policies nationwide and his supportive mentorship has directly impacted the lives of countless blind individuals.
Claudia Gordon
Claudia Gordon is recognized as one of former President Barack Obama’s key advisors for disability issues. She was also the first female deaf African American lawyer to graduate law school and pursue a career devoted to helping individuals with disabilities.
The discrimination she faced growing up did not stop Gordon from achieving her goals. “It is uplifting when you are able to empower another and help someone discover a sense of self worth and confidence in his or her abilities,” she said of her efforts to continue to inspire many, especially those who are deaf as well.
Read more about this important leader!
Curtis Hill
Curtis Hill joined DRNC in April 2019 as an advocate for the agency’s emergency management and disaster relief efforts where he assisted people with disabilities affected by Hurricane Florence and has since expanded his role to focusing on helping North Carolinians with disabilities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Born several months early with cerebral palsy, doctors said Curtis would never be able to walk, but he proved them wrong taking his first steps at the age of 3. His activism started in college, where he fought for the tunnels on the N.C. State University campus to be more accessible for students with physical disabilities.
Based in Columbus County, Hill is committed to reaching underserved communities across the state. He was recently featured in an article detailing his incredible work advocating for racial equality in his town and across NC.
Taryn Mackenzie Williams
Taryn Mackenzie Williams is the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy.
Prior to joining the federal government, Williams worked as the research coordinator for leadership programs at the Institute for Educational Leadership and as the director of programs at the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues headquartered in Chicago.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University and a master’s degree in education with a concentration in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University. Williams has lived with ulcerative colitis since the age of 5 and resides in Washington, DC.
Read more about this important leader!
Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo
Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo is Global Disability Advisor of the World Bank Group.
As Disability Advisor, she focuses on working with and supporting operational teams across the institution to ensure that Bank policies, programs and projects take people with disabilities into consideration.
Before joining the World Bank, she served as USAID’s coordinator for disability and inclusive development, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2011 to lead the government’s efforts in disability inclusive development, from developing policies and country strategies to technical assistance for program implementation.
Dara Baldwin
Dara Baldwin is the Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights, Inc. (CDR). She started her first career while attending college and worked in Healthcare Administration in various operational and finance executive positions, for almost twenty years. In 2004 she changed her career to advocacy in the social justice/equity realm of work.
Ms. Baldwin is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy teaching a course on Disability Justice, Equity and Policy for graduate level students.
Keri Gray
Keri Gray is an activist and educator. In a world that seeks to stifle, push aside, or erase Black disabled people, especially Black disabled women and non-binary folks, Gray, 29, in a very intentional and grand way, is making it known through social media, her professional workspace, lived experiences, politics, and more that “loving [her] Black Disabled Womanhood” is not just simply a statement––it is a radical declaration, reclamation, and a state of being.
Justine “Justice” Shorter
Today’s leader is Justine “Justice” Shorter. Justice joined NDRN (National Disability Rights Network) in February 2019 as its National Disaster Protection Advisor. She is a Disability Justice advocate and Black Disabled Lives Matter amplifier.
She is a national expert on disability inclusive disaster protections, emergency management and humanitarian crises/conflicts. Justice has a steadfast commitment to international development and inclusive humanitarian assistance.
Tonier Cain
Tonier Cain works tirelessly to raise the awareness about trauma informed care around the world. She has trained providers in all 50 states. Tonier is an advocate and educator, speaking all over the world on trauma, addiction, incarceration, homelessness, substance abuse and mental health. Her work has been used as a model in other countries for the establishment of their trauma informed care protocols.
Tonier was the former team leader for the National Center for Trauma Informed Care, with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Director. Currently she works to create international leaders in the field of Trauma Informed Care.
Kelechi Ubozoh
Kelechi Ubozoh began her career as an investigative reporter in New York City and was the first student-reporter ever published in The New York Times.
After witnessing the impact of trauma and mental health issues on the people she was writing about, she decided to change her focus to providing direct mental health support. She relocated to California and started working at PEERS, a consumer-run mental health nonprofit.
For over a decade, Kelechi has worked in the California mental health system in the areas of research and advocacy, community engagement, stigma reduction, youth development and peer support.
Learn more about this incredible leader here https://kelechiubozoh.com/about/
Erricka Bridgeford
Erricka Bridgeford was trained as a mediator in September of 2001. By 2005, she became the Director of Training for Community Mediation Maryland. In this capacity, she continues to provide training to the 17 community mediation centers in Maryland, as well as to state agencies and organizations, and for national conferences.
Erricka shares her own experiences to foster honest dialogue. She brings her own issues to nurture everyone’s ability to laugh at themselves. She delivers whatever she needs to say with her heart, passion, and humor. This is her Purpose.
Mama Cax
Mama Cax was born Cacsmy Brutus on November 20, 1989, in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At age 14, she was diagnosed with bone and lung cancer. As a result of her cancer, she underwent an unsuccessful hip replacement surgery at age 16 which led to the amputation of her right leg. At first, Mama Cax was depressed and struggled to accept herself with a prosthetic leg, as she wanted it to look realistic and match her skin tone.
She officially broke into the fashion industry as a model in an advertising campaign in 2017 and was signed by Jag Models shortly after.
Mama Cax’s life was tragically cut short by medical complications in 2019. The model and activist is remembered for expanding the image of what people with disabilities should be or look like.
Andy Anderson
Andy Anderson joined Disability Rights North Carolina in January 2020 as an advocate for the Disaster Recovery project. In March 2021 he moved to the Protection & Advocacy for Beneficiaries of the Representative Payees team.
Anderson has a deep commitment to the disability community and has over 30 years of experience, working in many different capacities. Outside of his role with Disability Rights North Carolina, Anderson is a minister at Father’s Cup Overflow Ministries and is a William Friday Fellow. He serves on the North Carolina Social Services Commission, the Columbus County Partnership for Children, and Columbus County DREAM Center boards. Anderson is an American Marshall Fellow.
Jazzie Collins
Jazzie Collins was a passionate organizer, activist, and leader living in the San Francisco area. Ms. Collins was open about being HIV-positive.
Ms. Collins was active – friends describe her as “fiery” and a “passionate advocate” – in causes that were factors in her life: tenants’ rights, workers’ rights, transgender rights and aging and health issues, among others.