(Author’s Note: None of the 62 chapters from Keywords are titled “Law”, so I chose Chapter 52, “Rights”, by Maya Sabatello, because I’m guessing that’s what the professor meant. It’s the closest, anyway.)
Hey You, Teacher,
If it were implemented in your Social Studies II class curriculum this semester, I think Crip Camp (2020)—yes, that Oscar-nominated, Sundance premiere documentary that was produced by the Obamas—would be of substantial educational value in teaching the full history of the American civil rights movement to your classroom.
First, let me offer that the disabled position in America remains largely unacknowledged in our humanities classrooms. The significant piece of American history covered in Crip Camp is retold colorfully by the leading rights activists for Disabled in Action, including Jim LeBrecht, Judith Heumann, Corbett O’Toole, Ann Cupolo Freeman, and Denise Sherer-Jacobsen, ALL of whom are accomplished authors in the field of disability studies as well—which is something to provide extra material for your potential unit on disability rights. It’s a fast-paced documentary about the fight for American civil rights, filmed from the ground floor of the sit-ins and the sidewalks of the protests.
The documentary follows the above cast during their youth at the disability-centered “Woodstock” (Ann Freeman) which brought them together and shaped their confidence—straight on through their fight to get Act 504 signed, a critical piece of civil rights legislation which was first vetoed by Nixon (quote: “it would be just impossible in terms of cost”), but later weakened and delayed under Secretary Joseph Califano, with all attempts to enforce the act abandoned by Reagan in a horrendously bigotted effort to deprive the largest minority group in the country of their rights to protection from discrimination in federally funded public spaces (and in organizations and businesses nationwide). Because the fight still continues, your classrooms, were they to include Crip Camp in their curriculums, might notice one term continually appearing—rights. But the fight for disability justice does not only include these adoptions into law, like Act 504. Rights is more complicated than that; which is almost exactly the message of Crip Camp going into today’s world. Perhaps it would allow your students to expand their perspectives on discrimination, society’s attitudes, and law.
Maya Sabatello’s chapter “Rights” from Keywords for Disability Studies offers that “basing disability claims for justice merely in terms of legal rights, without a concept of moral rights, is inadequate”, because if the legal rights were boiled down to their core, it would be exposed how “Traditional Western liberal theory assumes that rights are private, individualized, and autonomous”. Contrary to this, the interest of disability activists, including those in Crip Camp, has always been on “group rights”, which “focus on collectives that have shared interests and aim at protecting cultures, ways of life and practices that are presumably not sufficiently protected by the assertion of individual interests” (page 159). So, as Crip Camp’s core activists (along with machinist unions, Black Panthers and supporters) persist through three weeks of hunger striking, months of government sit-ins, and a generation of “really serious, radical action” (Jimmy LeBrecht), they fight for their rights in the law, but also for their rights to exist together as an identity without friction or hardship. Sometimes this can be as plain as the right to not be “sidelined” (Judy Heumann) in a public space with your presence, but other times these rights are less obvious to the nondisabled, like the right to privacy. As one Camp Jened camper, Nick, put it: “I think what Nancy is talking about is that everyone in their life sometimes wants to be alone. I think that’s one of the major rights.” The story really only begins with Act 504, but Crip Camp teaches students to fight for the full extent of their rights, the way Sabatello describes.
So, Sabatello’s understanding of legal rights and group rights, together, helps encapsulate Disability in Action’s goals and expectations for the implementation of Act 504. And although the world has come a long way from the incomprehensible atrocity of the institution-era, you may still be tempted to avoid showcasing this film to your classroom because of its graphic depictions of abuse in institutions like Willowbrook—I urge you not to. Though uncomfortable for students, that scene provides additional understanding of the stakes of this fight for civil rights by the disabled in America. It was not very long ago.
Of the above reasoning, might I add—aren’t these EXACTLY the kinds of topics you’d want to use to stimulate class discussion? What does Social Studies in American classrooms concern at its heart, if not the rights and freedoms of the country? As the famous clause “all men are created equal” has taken nearly 250 years to prove effected, much of that catch-up is contained already in your Social Studies curricula—and here is one more opportunity for learning. The relevance in humanities classrooms is abundant, across the board, but this is magnified by the under-evaluation of the disabled position in history as a minority group. As Corbett O’Toole said in Crip Camp, “There are moments when history shifts”. This film is an artful reliving of one of the most important ones of the last century. I hope that your Social Studies curriculum this year does not overlook a highly educational piece of American literature which could be supplemental to your classroom’s emergent concept of rights and freedoms.
Sincerely,
Clover
A Future High-School Teacher
