When the historical past of individuals with disabilities is mentioned, the identical names pop up: figures like Helen Keller or Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, accounts of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman’s activism have usually failed to say their disabilities or take into consideration how their incapacity affected their work and lives.
The Massachusetts Historical Society will host “Disability and the American Past: Disappeared Disabilities,” a digital program with Beth Linker, University of Pennsylvania, Mara Mills, New York University, Leroy Moore, Krip-Hop Nation, and moderated by Ola Ojewumi, Project ASCEND, set for Wednesday, February eighth.
Drawing from her forthcoming e-book, Slouch, Beth Linker demonstrates how John F. Kennedy’s disabling again ache, whereas usually hidden from the public eye, superior the medicalization of the situation, however did little to advance the rights and protections of the rising variety of U.S. residents who skilled the same debility to that of the President. Referencing her analysis in the Thomas Edison archives, Mills will talk about myths about Edison’s relationship to assistive know-how, in addition to the worth of the assortment for incapacity historical past, given the intensive correspondence from deaf and onerous of listening to contemporaries.
Leroy Moore will discuss the people featured in his e-book, Black Disabled Ancestors, and what their tales can train us in the present day.
Ola Ojewumi will then lead panelists in a dialogue about the results of the erasure of incapacity in historical past, efforts to reframe this historical past, and what we will be taught from how the disabilities of individuals from politicians to activists have knowledgeable their actions that modified historical past.
This program will happen from 6 to 7 pm. For extra data or to register, click on right here.
Photo offered.
