An Oral History of the Capitol Crawl

July 2, 2023 11:47 AM

When I made it to the top, I was exhausted and my elbows and knees were bleeding. JULIE FARRAR: By the time of the crawl, I was about 19. I was pretty tiny and much more mobile. I was known for being able to crawl around, through, up, down, over police barriers, stairs and so on. We were watching Bob Kafka and waiting for the signal to start crawling up the stairs. The feeling of camaraderie was palpable — the excitement on our march there, the staging. I don’t remember the speeches. I just remember feeling so proud in a very sacred communal way of being a part of it all. [Happy Disability Pride Month! Join the Roll call of mefites with disabilities in the first post]

“In an interview with the Indiana Disability History Project, former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, who introduced and championed the ADA, said of the Capitol Crawl, “When that hit the evening news all over America, we got the bill out of the House 30 days later.”

posted by Bottlecap (6 comments total)

I teared up a little at the part with the little girl.

The year I was in the sixth grade, I tested for and interviewed to get into the best private school in my hometown because it admitted an additional group of students for seventh grade/junior high/middle school. (Call it "Rushmore".) I was interviewed on the second floor of one of the buildings surrounding the quadrangle. There was no elevator, and at the time of the interview, I was on crutches following surgery on an injury that later turned out to be an early sign of my chronic illness and slowly-growing disabilities.

This was not a modern building and the stairs were narrow and tall. Even though I was already taller than the average adult woman at that time, I couldn't safely manage the stairs with my crutches. I crawled up those stairs on my ass to make that interview.

I did get admitted to and ultimately graduated from the school. I don't think about that particular humiliation very often, but yeah, I totally get the Capitol Crawl. Everyone who made the Crawl is a hero to me.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 1:53 PM on July 2, 2023 [17 favorites]

I did not realize the ADA was only passed in 1990. Thank you for sharing this. The public transit agency in Boston is *still* working on getting all stations and stops up to ADA standards.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 3:34 PM on July 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Previously tangential.
posted by bendy at 8:13 PM on July 2, 2023

Just started the article. The Capitol Crawl is intense to me in the same way Rosa Parks not yielding her seat is.
posted by bendy at 8:23 PM on July 2, 2023

TL;DR but I believe this is covered in Crip Camp. It’s a great movie. Even though I lived through those years, I didn’t know any of the history. Very moving stories as well
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:44 AM on July 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Thank you for posting this. I was part of a group that protested Senator Toomey outside of his offices across Pennsylvania every Tuesday from November 2016 until his last day in office January 2023. Many of our members are also members of ADAPT and we often used ADAPT's protesting/activism tactics as inspiration. I think they are some of the most creative, thoughtful and effective protest groups in the country. The Capitol Crawl is just one of many of ADAPT's successful actions (see for example ADAPT's protests against the GOP's attempts to repeal the ACA).

For anyone who organizes protests, I highly recommend checking out ADAPT's organizing resources.
posted by mcduff at 7:12 AM on July 3, 2023 [9 favorites]