Two 504 Figures: Kitty Cone and Brad Lomax

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class — Two 504 Figures: Kitty Cone and Brad Lomax

Hosts: Holly Frey, Tracy V. Wilson
Date: January 5, 2026
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the Section 504 sit-ins of 1977—watershed protests in disability rights history—and focuses on two lesser-known but pivotal figures: Kitty Cone and Brad Lomax. Holly and Tracy provide historical context for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, review its role and the challenges surrounding disability rights, and highlight how Cone and Lomax’s activism was essential to the prolonged San Francisco sit-in, coalition-building, and lasting change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Section 504 & Disability Rights: Historical Foundations

• Recent Legal Context:
  • September 2024: 17 states sued the Dept. of Health and Human Services over new rules considering gender dysphoria a disability under Section 504; lawsuit dismissed in October 2025, but Section 504 and its implementation remain central in current accessibility and civil rights debates.
    (Tracy, 00:52)
• Rehabilitation Act of 1973:
  • Primarily aimed at helping disabled people with employment.
  • Included accessibility measures: interpreters for deaf people, reader services for blind people, telecommunications, mobility services, and a requirement for federal agencies to address transportation and workplace barriers.
  • Affirmative action measures were also required.
    (Tracy, 04:10)
• Section 504 Language:
  • "No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States...shall solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded..."
    (Holly, 05:28)

2. The 504 Sit-Ins: Why and How They Happened

• Delay in Implementation:
  • Nixon and Ford administrations failed to enact Section 504 regulations.
  • After Carter’s election, activists occupied Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) offices nationwide to demand action.
    (Holly, 07:27; Tracy, 08:14)
• San Francisco’s 26-Day Sit-In:
  • The longest and most impactful occupation, thanks largely to coalition-building among various groups, making it possible for demonstrators to stay for nearly a month.
    (Holly, 08:48)
• Outcome:
  • Secretary Joseph Califano signed the implementing regulations on April 28, 1977—almost four years after passage.
    (Tracy, 09:24)

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Section Profiles: Activists at the Center

Kitty Cone

Early Life & Disability Journey

• Born 1944, frequently relocated due to her father's military service.
• Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 15 after misdiagnoses and mistreatment.
  (Holly, 14:44; Tracy, 15:03)

Activism Roots

• Faced exclusion and discrimination throughout her education.
• Became involved in civil rights activism in college, ultimately leaving school in 1967 without graduating to pursue activism full-time.
• Made a personal decision to be sterilized based on her medical situation.
  (Tracy, 16:24; Holly, 16:50; Tracy, 18:00)

Move to California & Coalition Building

• Became a socialist and came out as a lesbian in the 1970s.
• Joined the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley and the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities.
• Advocated broad coalitions: “She thought disability rights organizations should...connect with abortion rights groups, anti war groups, women’s rights groups, labor unions...anywhere they could find some common ground.” (Tracy, 19:08)
• Instrumental in uniting diverse organizations—churches, unions, LGBTQ+ groups, labor, the Black Panthers, and more—for the sit-in’s survival and effectiveness.
  (Holly, 19:46; Tracy, 21:26)

The Sit-In Experience & Legacy

• Managed her own significant health needs during the sit-in, relying on teamwork.
• Part of the Washington, D.C., delegation that pushed the regulations forward.
• Memorable Quote:
  “We showed strength and courage and power and commitment, that we the shut ins or the shutouts, we the hidden, supposedly the frail and the weak, that we can wage a struggle at the highest level of government and win.” —Kitty Cone (Holly, 24:22)
• Viewed the sit-in as “the public birth of the disability rights movement.” (Tracy, 24:51)
• Continued activism focused on paid work (to support herself and adopted son Jorge), coalition-building, and organizational leadership.
• Died of pancreatic cancer in 2015 at age 70.
  (Tracy, 27:32; Holly, 27:45)

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Brad Lomax

Early Life & Intersectional Challenges

• Born 1950 in Philadelphia; became disabled in late teens with multiple sclerosis.
• Encountered compounded discrimination as a Black man with disabilities—racial housing discrimination atop physical inaccessibility.
  (Holly, 28:30; Tracy, 29:40)

Black Panther Party Involvement

• Helped found the Washington, D.C., chapter, organizing first aid and health clinics (notably for sickle cell screening).
• Moved to Oakland for better accessibility, but discovered services didn’t reach Black neighborhoods.
• Worked with Ed Roberts to establish a Center for Independent Living branch in East Oakland, bridging the gap in access.
• Brought the Black Panther Party into Bay Area disability activism.
  (Tracy, 30:30; Holly, 31:36; Tracy, 32:44)

Critical Role in the 504 Sit-In

• Participated in the San Francisco occupation; the Black Panthers (and attendee Chuck Jackson) provided daily hot meals and support at his initiative.
• Their logistical support was described as indispensable—“Multiple demonstrators said they would not have survived without the Black Panthers.” (Tracy, 33:41)
• Notable Moment:
  When asked why the Panthers helped mostly white demonstrators, a member replied, “because the demonstrators were fighting for social justice and willing to put their lives on the line for it, and because Brad was there.” (Holly, 34:28)

Legacy and Untimely Death

• Continued activism in both disability and Black liberation movements as long as his health allowed.
• Died of complications from multiple sclerosis in 1984 at age 33.
  (Tracy, 34:47; Holly, 35:10)

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The Lingering Challenge of Disability Rights Legislation

• Limits of Section 504 & Beyond:
  • Applied mainly to government programs and agencies receiving federal funds; did not cover private business broadly.
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 expanded protections, drawing on Section 504 language.
  • Barriers to access—legal, physical, technological—persist due to loopholes, lack of enforcement, and evolving circumstances.
  • ADA is a floor, not a ceiling, for accommodations. (Tracy, 35:54)

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Notable Quotes

• Judy Heumann (about the sit-in, earlier episode, 09:50):
  “Through the sit-in, we turned ourselves from being oppressed individuals into being empowered people...we demonstrated to the entire nation that disabled people could take control over our own lives and take leadership in the struggle for equality. We overcame years of parochialism.”

• Kitty Cone’s Victory Speech (24:22):
  “We showed strength and courage and power and commitment, that we the shut ins or the shutouts, we the hidden, supposedly the frail and the weak, that we can wage a struggle at the highest level of government and win.”

• On the Black Panthers’ Involvement (34:28):
  “Because the demonstrators were fighting for social justice and willing to put their lives on the line for it, and because Brad was there.” —Black Panther member via Corbett Joan O’Toole

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Key Timestamps

• 00:52: Tracy introduces legal and political context for revisiting Section 504.
• 03:31: Holly outlines the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
• 05:28: Section 504, its language, and why it was groundbreaking.
• 08:14: Tracy explains the origins of the 504 sit-ins.
• 14:44: Holly introduces Kitty Cone’s biography.
• 19:08: Tracy discusses Cone’s approach to coalition-building.
• 24:22: Cone’s post-regulation victory speech.
• 27:50: Tracy introduces Brad Lomax.
• 32:44: Lomax’s role in expanding disability services in Black neighborhoods.
• 33:41: Impact of Black Panther Party support during the sit-in.
• 34:28: Notable exchange about solidarity and cross-movement support.
• 35:54: Tracy details Section 504’s limitations and the expansion via ADA.

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Memorable Moments & Tone

• The episode’s tone balances admiration (for Cone, Lomax, Judy Heumann, and activists broadly), frustration (about governmental inertia and lingering barriers), and hope (via coalition-building and eventual legislative progress).
• The intricate coalition in San Francisco—where LGBTQ+, labor, civil rights, and religious groups worked alongside disabled activists—stands out as a historical testament to intersectionality in action.

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Additional Notes

• Judy Heumann’s Influence: Acknowledged as the “mother of the disability rights movement”; the hosts explain why a full episode on her life isn’t covered here due to her recent passing and contemporary relevance.
• Coalition-Building as Strategy: Cone’s insistence on cross-movement alliances ensured the sit-in’s duration, impact, and legacy.
• Food as Sustenance and Solidarity: The Black Panthers’ daily support for demonstrators—a literal lifeline—was more than logistics; it symbolized cross-community trust and solidarity.

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Conclusion

This episode powerfully revisits the spark and sustenance of the 1977 Section 504 sit-ins through the lives of Kitty Cone and Brad Lomax, emphasizing the essential role of intersectional coalition-building and highlighting how disability rights activism was—and remains—intertwined with other civil rights movements. The hosts’ deep research and rich storytelling make this an essential listen for anyone interested in the ongoing fight for accessibility, dignity, and equality.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hi Kyle, could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able.

[Holly Fry]

To do that yet.

[Evan Ratliff]

I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast shell on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Today's episode was inspired by some stuff that's been going on here in the United States for a while now. Honestly, hard to figure out exactly when to start the clock on this one, but In September of 2024, 17 states filed a lawsuit against the U.S. department of Health and Human Services. HHS had issued its final rule implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation act of 1973, and those 17 states were challenging language from the preamble of that rule, and that language indicated that gender dysphoria could be considered a disability under the law. This lawsuit also argued that section 504 as a whole was unconstitutional. We ran a Saturday classic related to this in February of last year when it was in the news that was six impossible episodes from SIP INS to Fissions, which Talked about the 504 sit ins, which pressured what is now known as the Department of Health and Human Services to establish the policies that would implement Section 504. Back in 1977, when all this was happening in the news, I also wanted to find a new episode that was related in some way, but I wound up just focused on other topics. That lawsuit was effectively dismissed in October of 2025. Among other things, the 17 states that filed it dropped their argument that Section 504 was unconstitutional, and HHS issued guidance calling that preamble that mentioned gender dysphoria unenforceable. Under the Day One executive order titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology, Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. The federal government's also basically on the same side as the plaintiffs now when it comes to gender dysphoria. But section 504 and the sit ins are still deeply relevant. Other executive orders targeting dei have been interpreted as applying to things like disability and accessibility. And those and other related terms have showed up on things like widely reported lists of words that are banned from applications for government grants and Head Start funding. So the 504 sit ins have continued to be on my mind even after that lawsuit was dropped. And today we're going to take another look at section 504 and a couple of the people who were a big part of this sit in.

[Holly Fry]

So to briefly recap and add a little more detail to what Traci just talked about, the rehabilitation act of 1973 was focused primarily on vocational rehabilitation, meaning services and programs intended to help disabled people prepare for employment or to be able to work. It also authorized programs to figure out how to meet the needs of people for whom a vocational goal is not possible or feasible. Although that wasn't one of its primary purposes, it was signed into law by president Richard Nixon, who vetoed earlier versions of the law because he said that those would be too expensive to implement.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

If you look at the whole of this law, I would call it kind of a mixed bag. At its core, it is a law that views disabled people as needing to be rehabilitated. And it's really underpinned by a mindset that a person's value is tied to their ability to work. At the same time, it included requirements and funding for programs and services that really would make things more accessible, including interpreter services for deaf people, reader services for blind people, telecommunications services, and mobility services. It required federal agencies to assess things like transportation barriers that could prevent disabled people from being able to work or to participate in these programs. It also required federal departments and agencies to create affirmative action plans for the hiring, placement, and advancement of disabled people and to have a plan to meet the needs of those employees. If the words affirmative action gave you an internal yikes, that just means taking proactive steps to make sure disabled people were not being discriminated against and were being provided with reasonable accommodations to access their workplace and do their work.

[Holly Fry]

The rehabilitation act of 1973 built on earlier laws, and it was amended and adjusted by laws that came afterward. One of the parts that's still discussed the most today is section 504, which was the broadest piece of disability rights legislation in the United States until the passage of the Americans with disabilities act in 1990, when the rehabilitation act of 1973 was passed. Section 504 read, quote, no otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States, as defined in section 7. 6, 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. It has been amended by other laws since then, and the language that's in place today uses the term disability rather than handicap, as that is no longer really considered the current way to manage those words today. Section 504 also specifies that it applies to the United States Postal Service.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The rehabilitation act of 1973 is about 40 pages long, and some of its other sections had a lot more detail, including things like dollar amounts for the funding and definitions of terms, references to how this federal law relates to the states and to state agencies. But section 504 was just that bit we read. It had no direction about how it could actually be implemented. So the agencies that Section 504 applied to had to draft rules and regulations that would allow them to implement it. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was selected as the lead agency, meaning that they would draft their regulations first, and then other departments and agencies would follow based on those regulations.

[Holly Fry]

But not much actually happened after Richard Nixon signed the Rehabilitation act into law on September 26, 1973. He resigned as president on August 8, 1974, and his successor, Gerald Ford, left office on January 20, 1977. Their administrations had drafted regulations, but had not actually implemented anything. After Jimmy Carter took office, activists demanded that the drafted regulations be put into place. But instead, Joseph Califano, Carter's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, assigned a task force to start reviewing them. A lot of people interpreted this as a delaying tactic and an opportunity for the government to try to water things down.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is where the 504 sit ins come into the picture, which we talked about in that Saturday classic that we mentioned at the top of the show, which ran in early 2025. In 1977, after years of other advocacy, disabled activists started taking over HEW offices around the country. A lot of these occupations were brief. They ended within a day or two after activists were either removed from the buildings or they left on their own because they didn't have the food or the supplies that they would need to stay longer than that.

[Holly Fry]

But in San Francisco, disabled people and their attendants occupied the HEW office 24 hours a day for 26 days. Eventually, the demonstrators selected a delegation of people to go to Washington, D.C. to try to meet with legislators and Secretary Califano directly. The International association of Machinists helped pay for plane tickets from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. and because there were no accessible options for ground transportation, they also paid for a moving truck with a lift that could accommodate wheelchairs.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

After being turned away from the Washington, D.C. office of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the demonstrators had a candlelight vigil outside of Califano's house. They also demonstrated outside the church where the President and his family went to Sunday services. Califano finally signed the regulations on April 28, 1977, almost four years after the law had been passed.

[Holly Fry]

We talked about this sit in and the delegation to Washington in that Saturday classic that we mentioned earlier, but we didn't really talk about any of the people who organized it or kept it going. One person we did mention briefly is Judith Heumann, who went by Judy. She became disabled after surviving polio when she was a child, and she was an enormous part of this sit in and the disability rights movement more broadly. She has been referred to as the mother of the disability rights movement. In our earlier episode, we quoted her as saying, quote, through the sit in, we turned ourselves from being oppressed individuals into being empowered people. We demonstrated to the entire nation that disabled people could take control over our own lives and take leadership in the struggle for equality. We overcame years of parochialism.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We really cannot overstate what a huge part of this sit in Judy Heumann was. She was deeply involved in organizing it and carrying it out and just keeping people going day after day. She was one of the people who traveled to Washington, D.C. and some of the people who stayed behind in San Francisco said that they kept occupying the HEW building there, not just for their own rights and the rights of other disabled people, because they just did not want to disappoint her.

[Holly Fry]

Today's episode is not focused on Judy Heumann, though. She died on March 4, 2023. She was 75. And there are some various challenges with trying to cover the life of someone whose death was in the very recent past. Her work also continued until the very end of her life, meaning a lot of it took place in really recent years as well. She was the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services during the Clinton administration, and President Barack Obama appointed her special advisor on disability rights for the U.S. state Department. She was the first person to ever fill that role.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I know, Holly. There have been times we have tried to do episodes on someone who just died, and that has been something that I ultimately wish we had done differently at least once or twice. Yeah. There are just various things that make it more difficult with someone whose death was in the recent past. In addition to all of that, her memoir, Being Human An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist was published just in 2020 and she was a big part of the 2020 film Crip A Disability Revolution. That film is about Camp Jened, which is a summer camp for disabled teenagers that ran from 1951 to 1976. Heumann worked as a counselor at the camp, and a lot of other people who either went to or worked at Camp Jened wound up being a huge part of the disability rights movement, including in the 504 sit ins. The last episodes of her podcast Human Perspective were also recorded just a few weeks before her death and published posthumously. So there's really a lot of information about her, a lot of it very recent and a lot of it in her own words.

[Holly Fry]

While we are focused on two other people who are not as widely known today, we just did want to acknowledge how important Judy Heumann was to the 504 sit ins and the disability rights movement before we move on. So after we take a quick sponsor break, we will talk about Kitty Cone.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hi Kyle, could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan, just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Thanks.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able.

[Holly Fry]

To do that yet.

[Evan Ratliff]

My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. There's this betting pool for the first.

[Holly Fry]

Year that there's a one person billion.

[Evan Ratliff]

Dollar company which would have been like unimaginable without AI.

[Holly Fry]

Now will happen.

[Evan Ratliff]

I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award winning podcast Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh hey Evan, good to have you join us.

[Holly Fry]

I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses.

[Evan Ratliff]

Listen to Shell game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The section 504 sit in that took place in San Francisco was the work of a large number of disabled people supported by a broad coalition of allies and organizations. And Kitty cone was a big part of the reason why the demonstrators had that coalition.

[Holly Fry]

Curtis Selden Cohn, known as Kitty, was born on April 7, 1944 in Champaign, Illinois. Her parents were Molly Mattis cone and Hutchinson Ingham Cone. Kitty's father was in the military, and the family moved several times when she was a child, including to Japan.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When Kitty was in first grade, her teacher noticed that she walked on her toes all the time, and the teacher pointed this out to Kitty's mother. It seems like Kitty's family wasn't really concerned at first, but as her symptoms progressed, they took her to the doctor. It took a really long time to get an accurate diagnosis. At first, doctors thought she had cerebral palsy and then polio. Some of the treatments she received after these misdiagnoses seemed to make things worse. Eventually, she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of 15, and she and her family were told that she probably would not live far into adulthood.

[Holly Fry]

In addition to changing schools when her father was transferred, Kitty also had to change schools for accessibility reasons, like school buildings having lots of stairs that she could no longer climb. And she often faced discrimination from teachers and staff, like being told that she wasn't allowed to participate in activities because of her disability. Or when she was at boarding school being housed away from the other students, which was not only isolating, but it also forced her to use a bathroom for with a tub that she couldn't get into or out of on her own. Between her father's moves and issues like these, she changed schools more than a dozen times over the course of her K through 12 education.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When she was looking at colleges, Cohn wanted to go to an Ivy League school or maybe to a women's college, but a lot of their campuses weren't accessible either. She described her college decision as being made by her family. She enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, which was close to some family members and also had a significant number of other students who also used wheelchairs.

[Holly Fry]

In 1963, Cone's mother died. Kitty was only 19 at this point, and she was still in college. And she took some time off after the funeral before going back to school. And when she did, she really threw herself into activism. Being interested in things like equal rights and racial justice was not new to her. She had started getting into fights about her classmates racism during her early school years, and she had fierce disagreements with her father over the subject of school segregation. After getting back to college, she protested against apartheid in South Africa and against the Vietnam War. She joined the Friends of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and raised money for civil rights protesters were arrested in the South. She got arrested herself during protests, something that infuriated some members of her family, including an uncle who was running for public office, and her father, who actually disowned her. They thought that Kitty was making them look bad. Over time, Cohn started focusing more on activism than on classwork. And she actually Left School in 1967 without graduating.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

@ this point, Cohn wanted to be a parent, but her doctors had concerns about the physical effects that a pregnancy would have on her body. She also still believed that she was not likely to live long. She ultimately decided to be sterilized. We have talked about the eugenics program in the United States and involuntary sterilizations that were enacted on disabled people. The impression that I have from this and from what she said about it was that she made the decision that she felt like was best for her based on the information that she had, and that some of the concerns that her doctor had, she really agreed with other things, maybe not so much, but like, this was an informed decision that she made for herself, not something someone else decided for.

[Holly Fry]

Her. In the early 1970s, cone became a socialist, and she also came out as a lesbian. She moved to Berkeley, California, and started working with the center for Independent Living. We talked about that in our episode on Ed Roberts and the Independent Living Movement. We ran that episode as a Saturday Classic. On December 3, 2022, Cohn also became active with the American Coalition of Citizens with.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Disabilities. One of the things Cohn talked about a lot was how important it was for organizations that were working on an issue to get the broadest level of support possible. So, for example, she thought disability rights organizations should not connect only with one another, but they should also connect with abortion rights groups, anti war groups, women's rights groups, and labor unions, forming a really powerful network of solidarity anywhere they could find some common ground with other people who had other objectives. She made connections like this with organizations all over the San Francisco Bay.

[Holly Fry]

Area. And that coalition building was a huge part of why the 504 sit ins in San Francisco went on for almost a month, when most of the sit ins at HEW offices in other cities ended after just a day or two. When disabled activists took over the San Francisco HEW offices, their support system included so many organizations. There was Glide Memorial Church, a non denominational church dedicated to social justice that was founded in San Francisco in 1929. Brick Hut Lesbian Cooperative. The Gay Men's Butterfly Brigade, which coordinated safety patrols to protect gay men in the Castro district. The Delancey street foundation, which was a nonprofit providing residential services for people with substance use disorder or who had been released from prison. Multiple labor unions, including the International association of machinists, the Teamsters. The Federal Workers Union. And the United Farm Workers. The Black Panthers, which we will be talking about more in just a bit. The demonstrators also had some support from HEW employees. Who helped out where they could. And the San Francisco city government. Mayor George Moscone brought in portable showers. Getting them authorized by the White House. After HE W officials turned him away. And that's just a sampling of the support coalition. Cohn called it one of the broadest coalitions she had ever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Seen. Yeah, in terms of HEW employees. Obviously, for the most part. HEW likes leadership. Did not want them there. But the employees would be kind of like, here's where the soap is. We made it so you can open this window. That kind of.

[Holly Fry]

Thing. A little subversive.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Assist. Yeah. These and other organizations supported the 504 sit in. Both within and outside the building. Doctors and nurses offered care to people who had complex medical needs. And volunteers from across multiple. Multiple organizations. Provided attendant care. Like helping people dress and take care of their hygiene. Organizations donated food and blankets and cots to sleep on soap and cleaning supplies. While people occupied the offices in the building. Other supporters picketed outside. And they signed petitions. And they contacted their legislators. Demanding action on the 504.

[Holly Fry]

Regulations. This coalition also involved organizations for people of different disabilities. Who sometimes had very different needs and perspectives. For example, the proposed 504 regulations. Got a lot of criticism from deaf people. Because part of the focus was on mainstreaming or assimilating disabled people into non disabled culture. But a lot of deaf people saw and still see deafness. As a unique culture. With its own language and norms. Not necessarily as a disability. And not something that should be assimilated away. But organizations for the deaf were also part of the sit in. With deaf activists. Taking the lead with communicating with people outside the building. Signing conversations through the windows after authorities cut off the.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Phones. All these intersecting layers of support Helped the demonstrators deal with the realities of living in a government office. 24 hours a day for almost a month. That would be uncomfortable for pretty much anybody. But it came with additional specific challenges. For a lot of the 504 demonstrators. A lot of people had particular medical and physical needs. And no real way to accommodate them the way they would where they normally lived. For some demonstrators who relied on specialized medical equipment or skilled nursing. This could actually be life threatening. So people did a lot of improvising and jury rigging. And just doing their best with the help of supporters both inside and outside the building. Kitty cone, in particular, dealt with a lot of pain over the course of the sit in and had to take a lot of painkillers to try to deal with it. She also needed to be turned over during the night, and that was something that other people helped her with over the course of the sit.

[Holly Fry]

In. Kitty Cohn was one of the people chosen to be part of the delegation to Washington, D.C. to discuss the 504 regulations with legislators. The coalition that Cohn had built helped arrange and fund the trip, including the machinists union, which we mentioned earlier. After the new regulations were signed, Cohn gave a victory speech in which she said, in part, we showed strength and courage and power and commitment, that we the shut ins or the shutouts, we the hidden, supposedly the frail and the weak, that we can wage a struggle at the highest level of government and.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Win. Cohn was also one of the many people to point out the importance of the 504 sit ins in the disability rights movement, including growing awareness of how accessibility was a political issue. She was quoted as calling it, quote, the public birth of the disability rights movement. For the first time, disability was really looked at as an issue of civil rights rather than an issue of charity and rehabilitation. At best, pity at.

[Holly Fry]

Worst. After the 504 sit ins, Cohn's work as an activist continued to be focused on building coalitions among organizations. This included connecting disability rights organizations and the League of Women voters. When Bay Area Rapid Transit, which commonly known as bart, proposed removing agents from.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Stations. Yeah, there were a lot of reasons that a person might need to talk to a human employee at a transit station. And a lot of those reasons applied mainly to women and to disabled people more than they did to non disabled men. Although the federal government had recognized the civil rights of disabled people through section 504 and its associated regulations, in practice, after those regulations were signed, a lot of things didn't really change that much. For example, as Cohn tried to travel for her activism work, she often found that things like hotels and public transportation were still inaccessible to someone who used a.

[Holly Fry]

Wheelchair. Around 1980, Cohn started a relationship with Kathy Martinez, who was blind. Cohn talked about getting around town with her in her power wheelchair and Martinez keeping up with her on roller skates. The two of them traveled together, including to Nicaragua, which had a large population of disabled people who had experienced spinal injuries, amputations, and other injuries due to the Nicaraguan revolution. Around this time, Cohn, who had struggled with alcohol misuse, became sober and joined Alcoholics.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Anonymous. She also still wanted to have a child. And at this point, it Seemed like her doctor's worries about her life expectancy being really shortened. That seemed unfounded in 1980, when she and Martinez started trying to adopt. They were rejected as adoptive parents for multiple overlapping reasons. They were both disabled. Since they were both women, they could not legally marry. Martinez was Latina, so they were regarded as an interracial couple. Ultimately, they went to Mexico and they adopted a son named Jorge. They returned to the United States a couple of years later. At some point after this, Cohn and Martinez.

[Holly Fry]

Separated. After adopting Jorge, parenting became Cohn's primary focus. She was still an activist, but a lot of her activism was through organizations where she could be paid for her work so she could support herself and her son. She worked with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund for years, eventually becoming its development director in 1993. She retired in 1999 at the age of 55. But she continued to be involved in the organization's work well after that.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Point. Toward the end of her life, cone reconciled with some of her family members who had ostracized her due to her activism. She died of pancreatic cancer on March 21, 2015, at the age of.

[Holly Fry]

70. And now we are going to take a little break, and then we are going to talk about Brad.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Lomax. The other person around going to talk about today is Brad Lomax. One of the things that comes up a lot in descriptions of the 504 sit in is that the Black Panthers brought food to the demonstrators in the San Francisco HEW offices every day. Brad Lomax was a big part of the reason for that. His full name was Bradford Clyde Lomax, and he was the oldest of three children born to Katie and Joseph Lomax. He was born in Philadelphia on September 13.

[Holly Fry]

1950. There's actually not a lot of information that's publicly available about Lomax's life. His father was a World War II veteran and an electrician. Growing up, Lomax was a Boy Scout and an athlete. He played football. He's said to have had his first experiences with civil rights activism when he visited his mother's family in Alabama when he was in his early teens and saw firsthand the differences between life in Alabama and life in.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Philadelphia. As Lomax started getting close to graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School, he thought about joining the military. But his graduation was in 1967. And at that point, the United States was really escalating its involvement in the Vietnam War. We talked about this in our episode on the Draft board riots that took place during the Vietnam War in April of last year. That's one of the other subjects I wound up focused on, rather than going back to 504 in the spring of last year, Lomax understood how the war and the draft were disproportionately affecting black men. So rather than volunteering for service, he went to Howard University in Washington.

[Holly Fry]

D.C. if he hadn't changed his mind, it's possible that he wouldn't have been able to pass the physical needed to enlist. In his late teens, Lomax started experiencing some physical symptoms, including losing his balance and falling when he walked. He was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and started using a wheelchair. He started experiencing the many ways that society was not accessible to wheelchair users, things like a lack of curb cuts and doors that were too narrow to get through. And he also saw the ways in which black disabled people faced multiple layers of discrimination, like housing. Buildings could be inaccessible, and then on top of that, there were landlords who just refused to rent to tenants based on their race. This was outlawed federally under the Fair Housing act in.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

1968. In 1969, Lomax helped found the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party was first founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby seale in Oakland, California in 1966. It was originally called the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and a big part of its initial focus was the forming of armed patrols to protect black neighborhoods, including protecting them from police brutality. Soon, the Black Panther Party started establishing community service programs in black neighborhoods, including medical clinics, ambulance services, legal aid, education programs, and breakfast programs for school children. Lomax's work with the Black Panther party in Washington, D.C. including helping to build a free health clinic that provided screenings for sickle cell disease, running the first aid tent at various Black Panther events, and helping to organize the first African Liberation Day in 1972. That was a demonstration on the National Mall whose speakers included Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and Jesse.

[Holly Fry]

Jackson. At some point, Brad moved to Oakland, California with his brother Glenn, which seems to have been largely at Glenn's encouragement. In addition to being where the Black Panthers had been founded, the San Francisco Bay Area was becoming more accessible than many other parts of the US Were. There were multiple interconnected reasons for this. The Bay Area had generally mild weather, which made it easier for people using wheelchairs and other mobility aids to get around. California had established an attendant care program in the 1950s to provide grants for elderly and disabled people to pay for home care services. Organizations like the center for Independent Living, founded by Ed Roberts, were being run by and for disabled people, providing information and support and advocating for accessibility and services. Even so, when Brad and his brother got to California, they found that the buses were not accessible. If Brad wanted to take the bus, Glenn had to go with him and then physically lift him onto the bus and then go back for Brad's.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Chair. In theory, the center for Independent Living served Berkeley and Oakland, but in reality, a lot of the services did not extend into Oakland's predominantly black neighborhoods. So in 1975, Brad Lomax worked with Ed Roberts to establish a new chapter of the center for Independent Living in East Oakland. And Lomax did this with support from the Black.

[Holly Fry]

Panthers. In 1977, Lomax became part of the 504 sit in at the San Francisco HEW office. Another Black Panther Party member, Chuck Jackson, acted as Lomax's attendant, and he also provided attendant care for some of the other demonstrators inside the building. The Black Panther Party was heavily involved throughout the sit in, bringing food and other supplies, including making sure all of the demonstrators got a hot meal every day and leaving food for the next day's breakfast and lunch. Multiple demonstrators said they would not have survived without the Black.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Panthers. Yeah, we talked about the enormous coalition of organizations that were involved before the break, but the Black Panthers are repeatedly cited as just holding the whole thing together with food, and that without enough food, it wouldn't have worked. In a documentary short called Brad Creating Communities of Care, 504 demonstrator Corbett Joan O' Toole said that she asked one of the Panthers why they were helping when almost everybody in that building who was demonstrating was white. That was really true of a lot of disability rights organizations in the Bay Area. Their answer was because the demonstrators were fighting for social justice and willing to put their lives on the line for it, and because Brad was.

[Holly Fry]

There. In addition to providing food, the Black Panthers helped spread the word about what was happening at the HEW office by covering it in their newspaper that was also called the Black Panther, and that paper had a national circulation. They also helped raise funds for the delegation's trip to Washington, D.C. after.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The 504 sit in, Brad Lomax continued to be involved with the Black Panthers and with disability rights activism for as long as he was able. But eventually he started experiencing cognitive changes due to multiple sclerosis, and Ms. Had also affected his ability to see speak. He died of complications from Ms. On August 28, 1984, at the age of.

[Holly Fry]

33. As we've said in this episode, that one brief paragraph of section 504 was really the biggest piece of civil rights legislation for disabled people in the US when it was passed. But in spite of the regulations that were eventually created around it, a lot of the same barriers to access and patterns of discrimination remained for years. Section 504 also applied only to the federal government and government contractors. It did not apply to private businesses at all. Ongoing advocacy to try to close these gaps and ensure equal rights and access for disabled people eventually led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities act that happened in.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

1999. If it was a private business that was getting federal funding, then that would apply. But I mean, otherwise there were a lot of things that were not affected by section 504. Some of the language of the ADA is rooted in section 504, and it applied a lot of the same protections of the Equal Rights act of 1964 to disabled people who had not been included in the Civil Rights Act. The act was amended in 2008 in part to address some court decisions that had limited the scope of the ADA as it was originally written. Even so, even with the Americans with Disabilities act, there are still a lot of barriers to access. Some of this is because the world changes like the Department of Justice just issued a final rule on how the ADA applies to state and local government websites in 2024 that is many, many years after governments started communicating with their constituencies online. Some of this is because of ADA standards just not being followed even in new building construction. And some of it is because the Americans with Disabilities act represents a minimum level of access requirements. And that minimum level is just not enough to make things accessible to everyone. In some cases, not enough to make things accessible to a lot of people, not just a few people who may be seen as having different needs than.

[Holly Fry]

Others. Do you also have listener mail for us.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Today? Yes, I do have listener mail. This is from Anna. Anna wrote and said hello. I have always wanted to write in and after two mentions of Montana over the past couple of episodes, I finally had a reason. I live an hour away from Hamilton, Montana and the Rocky Mountain Labs. I remember learning during the 2014 Ebola outbreak that the local hospital was one of three in the nation that could accept and treat people with Ebola due to its partnership with the lab. I was pretty shocked to learn our little local hospital was in the same rank as massive hospitals in New York and la. I foster kittens for my local animal shelter and have four of my own kitties. When I've had particularly spicy kittens, I've played your podcast to help get them used to human voices and hopefully foster a love of history. I fostered 21 kittens and one mama cat this year and all have found loving homes. The pictures include my cats, Gracie, the one eyed Beauty, Todd and Wendy as babies on my lap. Sammy Brown Tabby and a photo of a foster family and one of Tink, a foster kitty, meeting our chickens. Thanks for all that you do. You bring so much joy. Anna. Anna, Playing our show for spicy foster kittens is, I think, the best use of our show I have ever.

[Holly Fry]

Heard in my life by a wide margin.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. If you are fostering any kind of animal or if you have maybe a dog who's a little anxious and does better with voices, if you want to use our podcast for that purposes, just go for it. Go for it. Do that every.

[Holly Fry]

Time. Such an.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Honor. I love it. Thank you so much. Such an.

[Holly Fry]

Honor. I feel like we should start to bake in little secret messages for.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Kitties now for kitty cats. One time a long time ago, somebody sent us a note that said, hey, was there maybe a cat in the background at this time? Code in this episode? Because all of a sudden my cat was very interested. And I think at that point I had started recording at home, but we hadn't told listeners that was happening. And I was like, there's not. Not a cat. Who knows, possibly. These pictures are all really adorable. So cute. Thank you so.

[Holly Fry]

Much. Also, Anna, thank you for fostering animals. It's such a big, important step in animal welfare in the US and you clearly have a very big heart and I appreciate.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It. Foster families for animals also make a huge, huge difference in how those animals live as pets afterward. The fact that our kittens, whose mother was feral, were incredibly well socialized and tolerated having their nails clipped and, you know, great around people. I really credit with the family that took care of them after their mother returned to the feral colony because they were not thriving in the shelter. So thank you so much, Anna. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're at history podcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio Business, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed.