ULOBA met Kenneth Stein outside the federal building in San Francisco. -It was in this very building it all took place, Stein explains. - It was right here more than 100 outraged disabled people in 1977 occupied the federal building for 28 days demanding that the politichians signed the regulations for the section 504 in the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.
We shall not be moved.
- It was fantastic! - I am so proud to have been a part of this, Ken says. -I was a part of the Independent Living Movement at the time, but I was not one of the persons who took part in the sit-in. -For 28 days I marched around out here in front of the building together with hundreds of others siinging "We shall overcome" and "We shall not be moved". -And, since I didn´t have a visual disability, the security guards allowed me to go in and out of the building functioning as a messenger to the occupants, he says.
Illegal to discriminate.
The battle for the section 504 was one of the most important and one of the greatest victories in disabled people´s struggle for sivil rights in the USA. The section 504 was made law in 1973 and say it is forbidden to spend federal money to discriminate people with disabilities. Please read the last sentence once more!
Discrimination in Norway is legal.
The section 504 is a fantastic paragraph. In Norway, more than 30 years later, we still do not have anything like it. In Norway it still is both legal and systematically common that politicians spends public money into both excluding and discriminating against disabled people. Shools, buses and trains are some excamples of this.
Did not understand.
- When the politicians in 1973 passed the "Rehabilitation Act" including the section 504, they did not understand what it meant, Ken Stein explains to us ULOBA-people outside the federal building in San Francisco.
Have had enough.
- It was later, when the politicians understood that the law they had passed meant that they no longer could spend taxpayers´ money into building discriminatory schools, buses and public buildings, that problems turned up. Now the American politicians refused to sign the regulations to the section 504, resulting in the section 504 was "sleeping" untill 1977. But then the Americans with disabilities have had enough!
Occupied the federal building.
- In 1977 Independent Living activists set up pro-504 demonstrations in several cities all over the US. There also were a number of shortterm sit-ins and take-overs of federal buildings in some cities, Ken Stein explains. -But this was nothing, compared to what happened in San Francisco. Here more than 100 activists with disabilities occupied the federal building for 28 days. -The longest lasting take-over of any federal building in American history, Stein tells.
Important part of American history.
- When the occupation started, I instantly understood that this was an important event in American history, Ken Steins says. So, every afternoon I rushed home taping and video-taping everything the news said about the occupation. - And I am glad I did, he says. -Otherwise these important events might have been lost for the generations to come. Ken Stein now works in the very same building that 30 years ago was occupied by Independent Living-activists, his job is to make sure the city of San Francisco follows the ADA-regulations.
Solidarity.
The best thing about beeing here in 1977 was witnessing how a suppressed people stood up for themselves, Ken says. -The sence of friendship and solidarity was fantastic. People from outside came with food and blankets (smuggled in thanks to sympatetic security guards). People came every day by the hundreds, also from other discriminated groups, to sing and march in front of the federal building.
- But what is commonly unknown, is what happened inside the building during the occupation, Stein explains. Here people had sex (some for the very first time). Here some found their future lifelong partners. Here there were political workshops, and here they made such a wonderful friendship that the occupants refused to leave the building after 26 days when they had won and made the politicians sign the 504-regulations. -The last two days of the occupation was on overtime, Ken Stein says.
- But they might as well still sit in there, Ken Stein comments. -Because, even if we have had some victories, we still have a long way to go when it comes to sivil rights for people with disabilities in America, Ken Stein concludes.
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