Montgomery The Fight For Civil Rights Continues

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The Fight for Civil Rights Continues

By Jacqueline Kravetz

Montgomery, AL (July 15, 2000) -- The Spirit of ADA Freedom Flame continued its tour of the south with events in Selma and Montgomery Alabama, the fourteenth stop on its 24-city tour across the United States.

The Relay caravan began its journey to Montgomery, Alabama's state capitol, after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, echoing civil rights marches thirty-five years earlier when Dr. Martin Luther King led thousands across the very same Bridge to demonstrate for voting rights.

Arriving in Montgomery with police escort, the torch stopped at the Dexter Ave King Memorial Baptist Church -- Dr. Martin Luther King began his involvement in the civil rights movement while serving as pastor at the church from 1954 to 1960 -- before it was passed up the steps of the capitol. Over 80 torch bearers participated in the event, while hundreds of others observed.

In his keynote speech at the torch lighting ceremony at the capitol, Bill Lann Lee, the Federal Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights remarked, "There's no more appropriate place to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act than in this city. It was in Montgomery that the modern civil right movement was born."

"It was in Montgomery that Rosa Parks single courageous action inspired an entire movement for the African American community," Lee continued. Parks refused to give her bus seat up to a white person and was subsequently arrested. Her action eventually resulted in the desegregation of Montgomery busses.

As Montgomery was the seed bed for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the disability rights movement too has and will continue to be shaped in Montgomery.

The 1972 landmark decision on the Wyatt vs. Stickney case by Judge Frank Johnson, who ruled from the federal bench in Montgomery, said that persons in state run facilities had minimum constitutional rights to care. Johnson's decision established the Wyatt Standards and marked the first time in U.S. history that a court ruled that people in state run institutions had a constitutional right to care.

James Tucker, the lead attorney in what is now Wyatt vs. Sawyer (after the current Commissioner of Mental Health), explained that the Alabama run mental health and mental retardation facilities in question were among the worst in the nation when the case was filed in 1970.

In January 2000, Alabama Governor Don Siegelman settled what was the longest running lawsuit of its kind in America. Under the agreement, over a three year period the state of Alabama will move half of the over 1200 patients out of state run facilities and into the community where they can receive more individualized care.

Now nearly thirty years after Judge Johnson's ruling, Tucker said, "we are still fighting about what the conditions should be in these [state run] facilities."

Tucker, an attorney with the Disabilities Advocacy Program at the University of Alabama Law School said he takes his inspiration from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. A native of Alabama, Tucker's original aspiration was to be a race based civil rights lawyer. He has been involved with the Wyatt case for eight years.

The University of Alabama vs. Garrett, another landmark case coming out of Montgomery, endangers two provisions of the ADA: Title I, which bars discrimination by employers both private and public, and Title II, which outlaws disabilities-based discrimination against anyone by governmental entities.

In this case, the Supreme Court Justices will use the case of two Alabama state employees to decide whether state employees are protected by the ADA or whether Congress exceeded its power by giving state employees the right to sue in federal court under the ADA. A decision on the case is expected sometime in 2001.

Greg Smith, a columnist for Accesslife.com and radio host originally from Mississippi delivered the remarks at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Smith said, "I'm very proud to be at this historic location as a symbol of accomplishment. I believe Dr. King and the thousands that supported his work would be very pleased to know that we have taken civil rights to a new definition.... civil rights of all people including people with disabilities."

Before leading the Relay in what may be the first disability rights march across the Alabama River, Smith suggested, "as we cross this bridge this morning we should realize that it is a crossing to the future where we can all be equal participants in society."

Additional speakers in Montgomery included Barbara Futral Crozier, the Executive Director at the Governor's Office on Disability and local event coordinator, Bobby Bright, mayor of Montgomery, and State Senator Wendell Mitchell, who was also presented with the first annual Frank M. Johnson Award, among others.

The Johnson award is given to a person in the community who promotes the civil rights of peoples with disabilities. Johnson, who died last year is best remembered for his rulings on school desegregation, voting rights, access to public facilities and other civil rights questions, including the Wyatt case.