ADAPT has a long history of successfully using targeted advocacy and activism to drive change, including as a critical driver of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which President George H. W. Bush signed into law in July 1990.
Photographer Tom Olin has been a social documentarian for more than four decades, primarily capturing the unfolding history of the Disability Rights Movement. Tom’s images are uniquely important to the telling of the disability story thanks to the distinct journalistic style he has developed through years of relationship-building with the people driving the movement and his own participation as a person living with disability.
The Tom Olin Collection documents the Disability Rights Movement through photos and accompanying narrative, powerfully highlighting the protests, marches, and activism that contributed to the passage of the ADA. Below, Tom shares one of those photos and its accompanying narrative. Find all of his work, available for license, at tomolincollection.com.
“WHEELS OF JUSTICE” MARCH, Washington, D.C., Monday, March 12, 1990
—Narrative by Tom Olin
Early Monday morning, ADAPT activists and others in support of the movement gathered in front of the White House to begin their spring campaign, “Wheels of Justice,” with a march to the U.S. Capitol Building. There, they intended to pressure Congress to move on the “Americans with Disabilities Act.” With the ADA stalled in committees, advocates were restless.
As the crowd swelled to 700, the march commenced and proceeded up Pennsylvania Avenue. The line of concerned and active citizens — exercising their civil rights to assemble and protest — stretched for a mile, affecting DC traffic. Though orderly, they were not quiet, chanting, “What Do We Want?” “Our ADA!” “When Do We Want It?” “NOW!!”
Upon reaching the Capitol’s west side, facing the mall, the crowd coalesced around a microphone to listen to fiery speeches by Justin Dart Jr, Chair of the President’s Committee on Employment of PWDs, Rep. Pat Schoeder (D-CO), I. King Jordan, President, Gallaudet University, Rep. Major Owens (D-NY), Bobby Silverstein, Senate Disability Policy Sub-Committee on Labor and HR, Evan Kemp, Jr., Chair of the EEOC, James Brady, former Reagan Press Secretary, and Mike Auberger, Co-Founder of ADAPT.
Little did they know the history they would make this day, or the effect they would have on Congress. Following the speeches, empowered and chanting, everyone moved to the steps – and one by one, spontaneously began to crawl.
The Tom Olin Collection is housed in the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections in the William S. Carlson Library at the University of Toledo. Explore Tom’s collection online.
Interested in learning more about ADAPT’s initiatives today? Read the companion article — Speaking Out Against Threats to All Marginalized People: In Conversation with ADAPT National Organizer Mike Oxford