Brad Lomax and the Fight for Equality
By Ben Bryant, 3rd Year History
Brad Lomax, centre, next to the activist Judy Heumann at a rally in 1977 at Lafayette Square in Washington. via Disability Rights Florida Blog
Image Credit: HolLynn D'Lil
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in September 1950, Bradford Clyde Lomax experienced racial segregation throughout his adolescence and early adult life. During a visit to Alabama in 1963, he saw signage for segregated public spaces, kickstarting a life of activism. Racial segregation also prevented Lomax from joining the military in 1968 after he graduated from high school. When Lomax became aware of the difference in treatment of soldiers depending on their race during the Vietnam War, he instead chose to pursue further education, attending Howard University.
In the same year, Lomax was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that results in damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Now needing to use a wheelchair, Brad Lomax became acutely aware of the inaccessibility of everyday life for himself and other people with disabilities. Many public buildings lacked ramps, so Lomax suddenly became unable to operate on a day-to-day basis.
In 1969, Brad Lomax helped to create the Washington branch of the Black Panther Party, a Marxist-Leninist Black Power political organisation that advocated for equal rights for all classes, all backgrounds and all races. A core belief of the party was challenging the excessive, racialised force of police departments, by visibly carrying firearms in public or ‘open carry’ patrols. The party was described in 1969 by J. Edgar Hoover, the then director of the FBI, as ‘the greatest threat to the internal security of the country’.
After founding the Washington chapter of the Black Panther Party, Lomax aided in the organisation of the 1972 African Liberation Day demonstration on the American National Mall and started the Washington D.C. Black Panther Party Free Health Clinic.
Brad Lomax (left) and his brother Glenn (right), via The Center for Learner Equity
In 1973, Brad Lomax joined the disability rights movement after being unable to board a bus in Oakland, California without being carried by his brother to a seat. In 1975, he contacted the director of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living to ask for help in establishing another centre for Independent Living in East Oakland. Though successful in its creation, this secondary centre would be short-lived, shutting two years later due to a lack of support and funding.
In 1977, Lomax participated in the 504 Sit-In at a federal building in San Francisco and encouraged other members of the Black Panther party to provide relief supplies to his fellow protestors. The protest was in response to the failed implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which would guarantee rights and protection to people living with disabilities.
Section 504 stated that ‘no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States… [shall] be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance’. It was one of the first civil rights laws providing benefits and relief to people with disabilities and, after Lomax and two dozen other protestors travelled to Washington on 28 April 1977, it was signed.
Dozens of disabled demonstrators gathered inside the Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Federal Building.
Lomax died on 28 August 1984, aged only 33, in Sacramento, California, after complications with his multiple sclerosis. He has since been memorialised in the critically-acclaimed American documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and the New York Times’ obituary series Overlooked No More. His championing of both racial equality and disability activism brought together two often separated movements to further the ongoing fight for equality, helping to transform the lives of Black people and disabled people alike.
Edited by Scarlett Bantin