Michigan

Michigan has a rich history in the disability movement. We have been instrumenta in both good and bad things happening to disabled people. We will try to highlight the most important.

SIGNIFICANT PLACES TO VISIT and NETWORK WITH

DISABILITY JUSTICE in MICHIGAN

  • 1795-1864 Treaties with Michigan’s first nation tribes.

  • March 1, 1847 Michigan became the first government in the English-speaking world to outlaw capital punishment for murder and lesser crimes. In 1962, the state’s constitutionfurther banned it, stating, “No law shall be enacted providing for the penalty of death.” Michigan is the only state whose constitution outlaws the death penalty.

  • 1867 Prohibited racial segregation in public schools. Detroit resisted, claiming laarge cities exempt, and in 1869, Workman v Detroit Board of Education made it law in Detroit.

  • 1850 – 1865 Detroit’s pivotal role in the underground railroad.

  • 1881  Women won the right to vote in school related elections and proposals. Partly why we still have separate school elections.

  • 1983 Repealed ban on interracial marriage / miscegenation and retroactively approved all marriages entered into elsewhere.

  • 1885 Michigan Civil Rights Statute, “there is to be no separation in public places betwwen people on account of their color alone”.The statute was not enforced, however, until African-American dentist Emmett Bolden in 1925 asked for seating on the main floor of Keith’s Theatre in Grand Rapids. The theatre’s refusal led to a landmark 1927 decision.

  • 1890 Michigan Supreme court rules “Separate is not Equal” in Ferguson v Gies. Ferguson wanted tto be seated in the main dining area of a Detroit restaurant and was refused.

  • 1913  Michigan forced sterilization bill signed for institutionalized persons. Repealed after one sterilization done. Reintroduced, passed, amended 1923, 1925, 1929. Fully repealed

  • 1934  Mt. Pleasant Indian Boarding School closed. Long sad, depraved history.

  • June 1, 1939 Detroit Redlined. Government appraisers redlined neighborhoods with any Black families and neighborhoods adjacent thereto, regardless of income or housing quality, making them ineligible for government housing investments. Neighborhoods with a diversity of immigrants were also redlined.

  • 1963 Detroit Walk to Freedom – a mass march drawing crowds of an estimated 125,000 and was the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation’s history to-date.

  • Detroit race riots of 1943 and 1967.

  • 1974 Michigan Association For Retarded Citizens v. Smith, Civil Action No. 78-70384 – one of the first lawsuits to force closure of a “developmental center”.(1969) 1974 50th Anniversary

  • Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), or Public Act 453 of 1976, prohibited discrimination on the basis of “religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status” in employment, housing, education, and access to public accommodations.

  • Act 220 1976 Revised Mental Health Code provided a guaranteed right to due process. Defined the civil rights of persons with disabilities; to prohibit discriminatory practices, policies, and customs in the exercise of those rights; to prescribe penalties and to provide remedies; and to provide for the promulgation of rules.

  • 1976, Act 220, Eff. Mar. Deaf Persons’ Interpreters Act Michigan adult learners Michigan adult learners with disabilities age 18 to 26 have available to them a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE) (34 CFR §300.1; R 340.1701 and 340.1702).

  • Closure of Wayne County Poorhouse -Eloise(1839-1982),  Maybury Sanitarium (1921-1969), Traverse City Asylum (1885- 1989), S.W. Tuberculosis Sanitarium (1907-1982), Northville Asylum (1952-2003), and  Lapeer State Home (1895-1991), Wayne County/Plymouth State Home (1923-1974)

  • 1988 Surrogacy law passed by Republicans makes it a misdemeanor or felony charge to take part in a compensated surrogacy contract.

  • 1992 Disabled Parents Rights. Bill Earl, Leigh Campbell-Earl and daughter Natalie, their 1992 successful custody battle*

  • June, 1999 Jack Kevorkian is tried and convicted of second-degree murder

  • 2010 US Social Forum

  • 2016 Stop using handicapped parking, instead accessible. Use active wheelchair symbol.

  • 2015 Genocide required to be taught in Social Studies. Law

  • 2015 Road to Freedom Visited Detroit, Lansing, St. Ignace, and more. Subminimum wage protest at Lansin event.

  • 2016 MCL – Section 37.303 IDENTIFICATION AND PATCH FOR SERVICE ANIMAL (EXCERPT)
    Act 146 of 2015

  • 2022 House Bill 4075 and 4076. The word “handicapped” with “reserved” and change a stationary logo of a person in a wheelchair to an active wheelchair.

  • 2023 Elliot Larsen Act expands to protect against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation or expression.

  • 2023 HB 4616 and HB 4617  prevents state-licensed mental health providers from engaging in conversion therapy with minors and would aim to increase trust with state-licensed mental health providers.  Passed July 2023.

  • Senate Bill 44 (S-2) would amend Part 161 (General Provisions) of the Public Health Code to prohibit a licensee, registrant, or medical student from performing an invasive bodily examination on an anesthetized or unconscious patient unless specified requirements were met. Senate Bill 45 would amend Part 161 of the Public Health Code to define “invasive bodily examination” as a pelvic, vaginal, rectal, or prostate examination. These procedures aremore often performed on atypical, i.e. disabled bodies. Passed Nov. 2023.

PEOPLE

  • Marva Ways (1949-2017)  ADAPT disability activist

  • William Lambert Known as station master for the Detroit Undergroun Railroad stop

  • Vladimir Nikolaevich Konstantinov  (1967- ) Red Wings player entire career. Paralyzed in car crash.

  • Dr. John Harvey Kellogg,1852-1945), inventor of corn flakes and staunch eugenecist.

  • Art Humprey (2007-2017)

  • Chris Smit (1975-2023) co-founderof DisArt, musician, communications prof

  • Lawrence Dilworth, Jr. (1934-2022) passionate photographer of the Detroit he loved

  • Tony Filippis  (1915 -2007) generous philathropist,  diisabled activist,  DME business owner

  • Bob Liston  (1969-2019) founder of Michigan ADAPT, disabled activist

  • Brian Morris (1964 – 2013) co-founder Dwarf Athetic Association of Americas, state commission on disavpbilities. 

  • Peg Ball (1957-2018)  ADA pT activist, health and life coach,  founder of Able Amazons.

  • Rosa Parks (1913-2005) Instigated the 1955 Montgomery bus boyccott by refusing to sit in the back of the bus. Lived in Detroit from 1957 until her death.

  • Emmett Bolden (1900 -1935) In 1925 as an Black dentist asked for seating on the main floor of Keith’s Theatre. In Grand Rapids The theatre’s refusal led to a landmark decision in 1927.

  • Gordon Fuller (1953-) Founder of Fullervision (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ_175Rhrdo) Innovator in assistive technologies.

  • Charlie Martin drummer, keyboard, trombone and vocals for Bob Seeger and Silver Bullet Band

  • Richard Bernstein (1974-), first blind Michigan Supreme Court justice, inducted into US Jewish Athlete Hall of Fame, and aggressive defender of disability rights.

  • Jennifer Keelan-Chaffin. Disability rights activist from childhood. “All the Way to the Top, How one girl’s fight for Americans with disabilities changed everything- the story of her crawl up the Capitalsteps.

  • Feranmi Okanlami  (1985- )  former all-American track star before SCI,  director of Disability Services and Adaptive Sports at the University of Michigan.

  • Dohn Hoyle   (1942- ) tireless advocate for people with IDD, known for his stanch against guardianship and support for inclusive education

  • Dr. Len Sawisch (1951- ) psychologist, co-founder of Dwarf Athletic Association of America, a president of Little People of Americca, and is known for Little People (1982), The Hollywood Shorties (2016) and Big Enough (2004).

  • Duncan Wyeth   (1946-) Paraolympic cyclist, lead many progressive disability rights organizations

  • Dr. Philip Zazove (1951- ) chair of Department of Family Medicine, UM

  • Bonnie St. John (1964-)  Paraolympic skier, first Black woman to medal in paraolympics, civic leader, author of How Great Women Lead and Live Your Joy.

  • Owólabi Aboyade is a New Afrikan citizen, cultural organizer and multidimensional Detroiter with a passion for bringing the liberation lessons of Detroit to global audience. 

  • Ashley Fiolek (1990- ) was born in Dearborn, Michigan, and has been deaf since birth. She began motocross racing at the age of seven. She won the Women’s Motocross (WMX) championship in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012.

  • Diane Coleman Not Dead Yet

  • Leroy Moore Sins Invalid

  • Devva Kashnitz Medical Anthrolpologist. Society for Disability Studies.

  • Tobin Siebers Disability Theorist

DISABLED OWNED BUSINESSES

  • Teddy’s Ts and Buttons Official caravan buttons and stickers. Empowering disability justice messages.

  • Urban Press Detroit Union printshop – when your messagei is worth more than the paper it’s printed on.