Kitty Cone

Kitty Cone (born in 1944, died 2015) is an American disability rights activist.[1] She has muscular dystrophy.[2] She moved to the California Bay Area in 1972, and began working as a community organizer for the disability rights movement in 1974.[3]

Initially Joseph Califano, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, refused to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the first U.S. federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities.[4] After an ultimatum and deadline, demonstrations took place in ten U.S. cities on April 5, 1977, including the beginning of a sit-in at the San Francisco Office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This sit-in, led by Judith Heumann and organized by Kitty Cone, lasted until May 4, 1977, a total of 28 days, with more than 150 people refusing to leave. It is the longest sit-in at a federal building to date. Joseph Califano signed the regulations on April 28, 1977.[5][6][7][8][9][1]

Cone pursued implementation of Section 504 by protesting at the San Francisco Transbay Terminal in 1978, organizing Disabled People's Civil Rights Day in October 1979 in San Francisco, and lobbying in Washington against the Cleveland Amendment, which would have allowed local agencies to provide paratransit services instead of creating accessible public transportation systems.[1] In 1984 she began working at the World Institute on Disability, where she researched international personal care assistance programs.[1] In 1990 she began working for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)'s lawyer referral service, and in 1993 she became its development director.[1]

She is openly lesbian, and adopted and raised a son named Jorge from Mexico.[1][2][3]

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Kitty Cone, Facts On File, Inc., 2009. American History Online; Facts on File information obtained from Encyclopedia of American Disability History". Encyclopedia of American Disability History.
  2. 1 2 "Political Organizer for Disability Rights, 1970s-1990s, and Strategist for Section 504 Demonstrations, 1977". cdlib.org.
  3. 1 2 Joy D. Griffith, Karen Gibson, J. Ross; Joy D. Ross (23 August 2012). Old Lesbians and Their Brief Moments of Fame. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-1-4771-5650-6.
  4. ↑ "Short History of the 504 Sit in". dredf.org.
  5. ↑ "Disability History Timeline". Rehabilitation Research & Training Center on Independent Living Management. Temple University. 2002.
  6. ↑ "The Regents of the University of California. 2008. "The Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement." Berkeley, CA: The University of California Berkeley". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Disability Social History Project, article title Famous (and not-so-famous) People with Disabilities". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "EDGE - Curriculum - Biology". disabilityhistory.org.
  9. ↑ "Political Organizer for Disability Rights, 1970s-1990s, and Strategist for Section 504 Demonstrations, 1977". cdlib.org.
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