Black Disability Justice Syllabus

Jonathan Soren Davidson for Disabled And Here. Three Black friends sit in comfortable chairs and supportive recliners during an evening conversation. In the middle, a friend with narcolepsy falls asleep smiling while clouds drift behind her head. Her girlfriend sits to the left, holding her hand while talking to another sleepy friend across the table. This friend cups hot cocoa to their chest. Everyone is dressed in colorful t-shirts and there is cozy, warm light throughout the room.

Black disabled people are often left out of conversations about disability. We face anti-blackness within the workplace, when accessing healthcare (if we can access it at all), in society at large, and within disabled spaces. 

Black disabled people have been part of many movements for justice, but historical records rarely reflect our contributions.

Sins Invalid offers our Black Disabled Futures Month Syllabus as an opportunity to honor the legacies of Black disabled artists, thinkers, activists, and leaders and a tool for future work. We will update this syllabus periodically. If you have something to add to the list, please email Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Social Media and Community Engagement Specialist at cjarellejohnson@sinsinvalid.org 

History

• “The 504 Protests and the Black Panther Party.” Disability Social History Project. Dec. 2021. https://disabilityhistory.org/2021/12/19/the-504-protests-and-the-black-panther-party/

• “Brad Lomax—Uniting the Civil Rights and Disability Rights Communities” The Center for Learner Equity. Feb. 2021. https://www.centerforlearnerequity.org/news/brad-lomax-uniting-the-civil-rights-and-disability-rights-communities/

• Black History Month 2017: “Brad Lomax, Disabled Black Panther” http://www.rampyourvoice.com/black-history-month-2017-brad-lomax-disabled-blackpanther/

• Disability Rights Michigan. Civil Rights & Disability. Wayne State University. Detroit, MI, https://ddi.wayne.edu/possibilitiespodcast/civil_rights_disability_rights_drm.pdf

• Ojewum, Ola; NBC News. “Why Black History Month needs to feature the stories of the disabled," https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-black-history-month-needs-featurestories-disabled-ncna1259029

• Giovanniello, Sarah. “Remembering Jazzie Collins, Transgender activist.” glaad, July 2013. https://www.glaad.org/blog/remembering-jazzie-collins-transgender-activist

• Independence Now.“Johnnie Lacy, Social Justice Pioneer” https://www.innow.org/2021/02/01/johnnie-lacy/

• The Center for Learner Equity. centerforlearnerequity.org, “Fannie Lou Hamer – Paving the Way for the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, and Disability Rights Movements” https://www.centerforlearnerequity.org/news/fannie-lou-hamer-paving-the-way-for-the-civil-rights-womens-rights-and-disability-rights-movements/

• Early, Rosalind. “The Sweat and Blood of Fannie Lou Hamer” Humanities: The Magazine of The National Endowment for the Humanities. 2021.  https://www.neh.gov/article/sweat-and-blood-fannie-lou-hamer

• Senior & Disability Action. “Disability History.” Senior & Disability Action.   https://sdaction.org/about/disability-history/

Health

• McCoy, Terrence. “How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/how-companies-make-millions-off-lead-poisoned-poor-blacks/2015/08/25/7460c1de-0d8c-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html

• Carten, Alma. “How Slavery’s Legacy Affects the Mental Health of Black Americans” The New Republic, https://newrepublic.com/article/122378/how-slaverys-legacy-affects-mental-health-black-americans

• Johnson, Cyree Jarelle. “A Paradoxical History of Black Disease” Disability Visibility Project, https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2020/05/14/a-paradoxical-history-of-black-disease/

Activism, Law, and Politics

• Sins Invalid. “10 Principles of Disability Justice.”Sins Invalid, Sept. 2015. https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/10-principles-of-disability-justice

• Berne, Patty. “Disability Justice: A Working Draft.” Sins Invalid, June 2015. https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/disability-justice-a-working-draft-by-patty-berne

• Lewis, Talila A. “Trump’s Rule Attacking Disabled and Low-Income Migrants Has Violent History.” Truthout, https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-rule-attacking-disabled-and-low-income-migrants-has-violent-history/

• Lewis, Talila A. Disability Justice In the Age of Mass Incarceration: Perspectives on Race, Disability, Law & Accountability, Northeastern University School of Law Public Interest Law Syllabus, Summer 2016. goo.gl/uwGIB0. Course Archive: #DisabilityJusticeNUSL.

• Hurst, Adrienne. “Black, autistic, and killed by police.” Chicago Reader https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/black-autistic-and-killed-by-police/

• Jaffee, Robert David. “A Tribute to Tanisha Anderson: African-American Schizophrenic and Lost on the Streets.” HuffPost, Feb. 2015.   https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-tribute-to-tanisha-ande_b_6722294

• Bell, Christopher M. Blackness and Disability: Critical Examinations and Cultural Interventions. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI, 2012. https://msupress.org/9781611860108/blackness-and-disability/

• Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, October 2022. https://www.dukeupress.edu/black-disability-politics

Art & Literature

• Schalk, Sami. Body/Minds Reimagined. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, March 2018. https://www.dukeupress.edu/bodyminds-reimagined

• Brown, Keah. The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me. Atria Books, NY, NY, Aug. 2019. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Pretty-One/Keah-Brown/9781982100544

• Pickins, Therí Alyce. Black Madness:: Mad Blackness. Duke University Press. Durham, NC, June 2019. https://www.dukeupress.edu/black-madness-mad-blackness

• Moore, Leroy. Black Disabled Art History 101. Xochitl Justice Press, 2017. http://www.xochitljustice.org/buy-books-2/black-disabled-art-history-101

• Lorde, Audre. The Cancer Journals. Penguin Classics, NY, NY. Oct. 2020. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/623541/the-cancer-journals-by-audre-lorde-foreword-by-tracy-k-smith/

• Lorde, Audre. “The Uses of the Erotic/The Erotic as Power.” the Fourth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Mount Holyoke College, August 25, 1978. Keynote Address. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e7cf4825b02c00b6a142f0c/t/5f4bee98ceb27e4afe99bd7c/1598811800640/audre_lorde_cool-beans.pdf

• Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. Grand Central Publishing, NY, NY. April 2019. https://www.octaviabutler.com/parableseries