Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2018
Historical analyses of 1960s university campus activism have focused on activities related to the civil rights movement, Free Speech Movement, and opposition to the Vietnam War. This study supplements the historiography of civil disobedience and political activity on college campuses during that tumultuous era with an account of the initiation of the disability rights movement with the Rolling Quads, a group of disabled student activists at the University of California, Berkeley. This small group, with little political experience and limited connections to campus and community activists, organized to combat the paternalistic managerial practices of the university and the California Department of Rehabilitation. Drawing from the philosophy and strategies of the seething political culture of 1969 Berkeley, the Rolling Quads formed an activist cell that expanded within less than a decade into the most influential disability rights organization in the country.
1 Henry Bruyn, interview by Susan O'Hara, Dec. 1, 1999, transcript, Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Oral History Series, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (hereafter cited as DRILM), 9.
2 Linda Perotti, interview by Kathy Cowan, April 2, 1999, transcript, DRILM, 109–10.
3 Perotti, interview, 111–12. Jim Donald confirmed Perotti's observations. James Donald, interview by Kathy Cowan, Jan. 23, 1998, transcript, DRILM.
4 Charles A. Grimes, interview by David Landes, transcript, Sept.2000, DRILM, 42.
5 Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie, “Shape Structures Story: Fresh and Feisty Stories about Disability,” Narrative 15, no. 1 (Jan. 2007), 115CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 For examples of these efforts, see Proposal for the Physically Disabled Students Program, first draft, 1969, box 1, Michael Fuss Papers, DRILM, Berkeley (hereafter cited as Fuss Papers); Draft Proposal for Center for Independent Living, 1969, box 1, Fuss Papers; grant application to assistant secretary of education, The Physically Disabled Students Program, 1970, box 1, Fuss Papers; Proposal for the Creation of the Office for Independent Living, Rolling Quads, Jan. 1970, box 1, Fuss Papers; and Organization Chronology, Physically Disabled Student Program Records, box 1, Fuss Papers.
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11 Erib Dibner, interview by Kathy Cowan, transcript, June 6, 1998, DRILM; Ed Roberts, interview by Susan O'Hara, transcript, Dec. 1, 1999, DRILM.
12 Donald, interview, 83; Michael Fuss, interview by Sharon Bonney, Nov. 2, 1998, transcript, DRILM, 73; Billy Charles Barner, interview by Kathy Cowan, March 27, 2000, transcript, DRILM; Herbert R. Willsmore, interview by Susan O'Hara, March 7, 2000, transcript, DRILM; Caulfield, interview, 139.
13 Edna Brean, interview by Susan O'Hara, March 10, 2000, transcript, DRILM, 46.
14 Dibner, interview, 10.
15 Willsmore, interview; Zona Roberts, interview by Susan O'Hara, transcript, March, 2000, DRILM; Dibner interview; and Donald, interview.
16 Cathrine Caulfield, interview by Susan O'Hara, transcript, March 15, 2000, DRILM, 140.
17 Grimes, interview, 24.
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26 Fuss, interview, 56.
27 Timothy Pfaff, “A Conversation with Ed Roberts: California Q&A,” California Monthly, Feb. 1985, https://mn.gov/mnddc/ed-roberts/articles-docs/Conversation_with_Ed_Roberts.pdf; Donald, interview; Draper, Berkeley; Cohen, Freedom's Orator; and Rorabaugh, Berkeley at War.
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29 Willsmore, interview, 210; Zona Roberts, interview, 123; Donald, interview, 87; Barner, interview, 266; Caulfield, interview; Carol Billings, interview by Kathryn Cowan, transcript, Sept. 1999, 5, DRILM.
30 Carl J. Ross to J. A. Zelle, Oct. 12, 1967, Gerald Belchick Papers, DRILM.
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33 The second-year project evaluation contained summaries of the total DOR expenditures for each of the eighteen clients and projected state welfare savings based on expected future salaries in the students’ expected fields of professional employment. See Savino, Michael T. and Belchick, Gerald D., Vocational Rehabilitation of the Severely Disabled in a University Setting, Second Year Report (Sacramento: California State Department of Rehabilitation, 1970), 23–27Google Scholar. See also Lucile Withington, interview by Sharon Bonney, transcript, March 23, 1998, DRILM.
34 Withington and Savino, Vocational Rehabilitation of the Severely Disabled; Savino and Belchick, Vocational Rehabilitation of the Severely Disabled; and Withington, interview, 73.
35 John Hessler to Rod Carter, Sept. 21, 1969, Disabled Students Program Records, box 1, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (hereafter cited as DSPR).
36 Ed Roberts, interview; and Withington, interview, 76–77.
37 Ed Roberts, interview, 36.
38 Willsmore, interview, 186.
39 Withington and Savino, Vocational Rehabilitation of the Severely Disabled; Savino and Belchick, Vocational Rehabilitation of the Severely Disabled; and Withington, interview.
40 A year later, in fall quarter 1969, Billy Charles Barner was the first African American to be housed in the Cowell residence program. Barner, interview.
41 Grimes, interview, 62–3.
42 Withington, interview, 99.
43 Fuss, interview, 60.
44 Dibner, interview; Fred Collignon, interview by Mary Lou Breslin, transcript, March 1998, DRILM; Zona Roberts, interview; and Grimes, interview.
45 Withington, interview, 87.
46 Withington, interview, 77.
47 Fuss, interview; Collignon, interview; and Manning Peterson, “Highlighting Disabled Activism's Incubator,” The Advocate, The Student Voice of Contra Costa College, Oct. 29, 2015, https://cccadvocate.com/3037/opinion/highlighting-disabled-activisms-incubator/.
48 Withington, interview.
49 Ed Roberts, interview, 37.
50 Fuss, interview; Ed Roberts, interview; Edna Brean, interview by Susan O'Hara, transcript, March 10, 2000, DRILM; and Perotti, interview.
51 Ed Roberts, interview, 36.
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55 Wolfensberger, Wolf, Normalization: The Principle of Normalization in Human Services (Toronto: National Institute on Mental Retardation, 1972), 71Google Scholar; and Hale Zukas, “Center for Independent Living History,” Hale Zukas Papers, box 1, folder 1, DRILM (hereafter cited as Zukas Papers).
56 Willsmore, interview. The letters include Rolling Quads to Rod Carter, Sept. 1969; Larry Biscamp to Rod Carter, Sept. 18, 1969; Cathrine Caulfield to Rod Carter, Oct. 9, 1969; James Donald to Rod Carter, Oct. 8, 1969; John Hessler to Rod Carter, Sept. 21, 1969; Herbert R. Willsmore to Rod Carter, Sept. 19, 1969; Larry Langdon to Rod Carter, Sept. 19, 1969; Donald Lorence to Rod Carter, Sept. 17, 1969; and Ed Roberts to Rod Carter, Sept. 1969. All are located in box 1, DSPR.
57 “They Fought Disabilities and Won,” Daily Ledger (Antioch, CA), May 2, 1982, 10.
58 Barbara A. Kirk to Don Lorence, Aug. 27, 1969, box 1, DSPR; Bod Find to Colleen Nutt, Dec. 8, 1969, box 1, DSPR.
59 Sociology 198, Fall 1969, class meeting notes, box 4, DSPR.
60 Sociology 198, Fall 1969, syllabus and class meeting notes.
61 Belchick, interview by Sharon Bonney, transcript, Oct. 13, 1999, DRILM, 189.
62 Ed Roberts, interview.
63 Mario Savio, “Sit-in Address on the Septs of Sproul Hall” (speech, University of California at Berkeley, Dec. 2, 1964), American Rhetoric, ” http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariosaviosproulhallsitin.htm.
64 Cohen, Freedom's Orator; Rorabaugh, Berkeley at War; Draper, Berkeley; and Cohen and Zelnik, The Free Speech Movement.
65 Ed Roberts, interview.
66 Dibner, interview; Barner, interview.
67 Belchick, interview, 190.
68 “UC Cripples Score Cut of Monies,” Berkeley (CA) Daily Gazette, Sept. 20, 1969, 1.
69 “Students Accuse State Worker,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 19, 1969, 2; and “UC Cripples Score Cut of Monies.”
70 “Students Accuse State Worker.”
71 “UC Cripples Score Cut of Monies.”
72 “They Fought Disabilities and Won,” Daily Ledger (Antioch, CA), May 2, 1982, 10.
73 Belchick, interview, 196.
74 Savino and Belchick, Vocational Rehabilitation of the Severely Disabled; Belchick, interview; and Withington, interview.
75 Ed Roberts, “Independent Living: Born on Campus,” Mouth Magazine 101–102 (May-Aug, 2007), 43.
76 Judith Heumann, “The Disabled Need a Voice in the International Development Agenda,” Thornburgh Family Lecture in Disability and Law and Policy, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA, Feb. 9, 2006; and Zukas, “Center for Independent Living History,” Zukas Papers.
