Incitement
Incitement
Incitement

Vol. 9, No.1
A Publication of Atlantis/ADAPT
Jan/Feb, 1993

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[image caption] Co-directors Wade Blank and Mike Auberger reflect on the past decade of organizing and activism. Photo: Tom Olin

[Headline] If Heaven Isn't Accessible, God Is In Trouble...

by Tari Susan Hartman

ADAPT mourns the loss of one of our greatest leaders, Wade Blank, and his son Lincoln. While on a family vacation in Todos Santos, Mexico, Lincoln got caught in an ocean undertown. Wade swam out to save him and both drowned on February 15th, 1993. They are survived by Wade's wife Molly and daughters Heather and Caitlin.

Ironically, Wade died in the same way he lived-swimming out into the face of hostile undercurrents, and giving his life to help others fight for theirs.

Those who have come to national ADAPT actions remember in the early days Lincoln rode along Wade's back. Later, he walked by Wade's side while Caitlin rode. With his elfish smile, Lincoln quietly drank in all the action at demonstrations, vigils, planning meetings and anything else that came up in his dad's activist life. While other kids play "doctor" or "house", Lincoln played "rally."

Wade was born December 4, 1940 in Pittsburgh, PA. After attending an all white high school, he travelled with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Selma on a dare by a black college roommate. His experiences there taught him the deep oppression perpetuated by our "civilized" society. Once he graduated college, he served as pastor of a church just outside of Kent, OH that became the underground meeting place for the Students for a Democratic Society, SDS. After the Kent State killings, he returned to get a masters degree from McCormick Theological Seminary and was ordained a Presbyterian minister.

Burnt out on his past activism and organizing, he moved to Denver and began working in a nursing home. With years of civil rights, war on poverty and anti-war organizing experience, he could not ignore the opression he found there. So he began to deliver Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of freedom directly to the doorstep of the disability ghetto: the nursing home.

In 1971, while on staff at Heritage House, a Denver nursing home, Wade tried to work within the system to dignifiy the lives of the young disabled residents. A recent ABC-TV movie with Fred Savage entitled "When You Remember Me" chronicled this story. Wade and the resident's efforts were doomed to fail, but they gave birth to a better alternative.

In 1974 Wade founded the Atlantis Community-a model for community-based and consumer controlled independent living-named for the lost continent of Atlantis, those easily forgotten and dismissed. The first members of Atlantis were those young adults incarcerated in Heritage House, from which Wade had been fired. Forgotten by

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[image caption] Wade taking time out from an action. Photo: Tom Olin.

[text resumes] the system and often by their families, these individuals were not forgotten by Wade as he began to liberate them from the nursing home into the Atlantis Community.

Years later Wade and attorney John Holland masterminded a $32 million lawsuit against Heritage House nursing home for obstruction of justice and violation of civil rights. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Today many of those original nursing home residents are raising families in homes they now own.

In 1978, Wade and Atlantis realized that if people with disabilities were to truly live independently, they would need, and should have a right to, accessible public transportation. On July 5-6, 1978 a "gang of nineteen" disability activists and Wade held their first inaccessible bus hostage in the Denver intersection of Broadway and Colfax. Late that night Wade was surprised when US Congresswoman Pat Schroeder handed him a doughnut and a cup of coffee. Atlantis' decision to take the fight for lifts on buses to the national level soon led to the birth of ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit). ADAPT was the nation's first direct action, grass-roots movement of disability activists and mushroomed in over 30 states, Canada, Sweden and England.

Like the freedom riders of the 60s, ADAPT's struggle for accessible public transit became a national battle cry of the '80s. Over the course of eight years of bi-annual national demonstrations throughout the country, hundreds of ADAPT activists and their families and friends were arrested for their beliefs and commitment to ensure civil rights for all disabled citizens. Twelve years after the first bus seize, the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, mandated lifts on buses.

ADAPT's street chant "access is a civil right" echoed in the halls of Congress, as politicians became increasingly aware that ADAPT and the disability rights movement fully expected ADA to be passed as landmark civil rights legislation. ADAPT organized the "Wheels of Justice" march in March of 1990, and Wade played a key role. It was a call-to-action that galvanized the disability rights movement to demand swift passage of ADA with no weakening amendments. Over 1,000 disability Wade, continued from pi
rights activists from across the nation joined forces with ADAPT to demonstrate to the world that they were to be taken seriously.

On the second anniversary of the signing of the ADA (July 26, 1992), the city of Denver and its Regional Transit District commemorated that historic event by dedicating a plaque to Atlantis/ADAPT and the "gang of nineteen" who held the first bus. Wade refused to have his name engraved on the plaque, but his silent tears at the dedication ceremony revealed the depth with which he felt the issues of disability rights. He had left his mark forever etched in the foundation of our civil rights movement.

In 1990, when it was clear that ADAPT had successfully led and won the fight for accessible public transportation with the passage of the ADA, Wade and other national ADAPT leaders convened to plot their next course of action. There was little question for anyone what that next issue would be. ADAPT transformed its mission and became "American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today."

Together, ADAPT and Wade returned to the scene of one of society's most heinous crimes the warehousing of 1.6 million disabled men, women and children. These disabled Americans committed no crime, yet were and still are, interred against their wills in nursing homes, state schools and other institutions. They are used as the crop of industries like the nursing home lobby, physicians and their conglomorate owners who continue to get rich by robbing our people of their fundamental civil, human and inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Most of us are spectators sitting on the sidelines of life, learning history from books. Wade, was an active participant in over three decades of political organizing. He taught others how to create and record their own destiny. A brilliant strategist, he helped shaped the tide of the disability rights movement. Yet Wade was never too busy to roll up his sleeves and assist someone with attendant services, push or repair a chair, or drive a van. He stood up for what he believed in and expected others to do the same. In his pursuit to free others [text cuts off]

[boxed text] "Some - mostly those who didn't know him - have said that Wade's methods were "extreme." They said that civil disobedience in the eighties and nineties is "passe","obsolete," 'inappropriate." Bullfeathers! The same kind of things were said about Washington, Jefferson, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. What is extreme, what is inappropriate is millions of human beings living with less dignity than we accord to our pet dogs and cats. What is inappropriate is American citizens imprisoned without due process of law in oppressive institutions and rat infested back rooms. What is inappropriate is tens of thousands of people with disabilities living and begging and dying in the streets. What is inappropriate, what is unspeakably immoral, is a society that cannot be bothered to make the simple changes necessary to give its own children the opportunity of full humanity. "It has been my privilege to work closely with Wade Blank during the last several years. He has demonstrated against a meeting I chaired -when HITS Secretary Louis Sullivan spoke at the 1991 President's Committee on Employment of with Disabilities annual conference in D8118S. We have counseled together by telephone at all hours of the day and mgt. We served together on the ADA Congressional Task Force and in negotiating ADA with the President of Greyhound We marched together for equality in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington. We were together in the freezing mid-night outside the barricaded Departmert of Transportation in Washington I never put myself in a position to be arrested. Wade said that was alright, because I could play positive role within the system. I was never sure in my heart if that I was on the right side of the bars. I knew he was. "Let us join together in memory of Wade - on May 9th [at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington Dq ... to continue the struggle for a truly human society. Let us join in one voice to shout his shout - "FREE OUR PEOPLE " — Justin Etta Jr [boxed text ends]

[quote begins]
'From my heart, I know the dream will keep on and on, because what Wade started and everyone picked up and caned on with is more important than just freedom and rights — there is a spirit and feeling from all of this of home, family, love and respect caused by the emergence of the common bonds of freedom and equality. It is a great feeling to know that there .is a "family of man" where we all work and play together, laugh and cry together, and all realize that together is the key to our success: We have something that is unique in this world and my hope is that we can spread it all around in ever widening circles to encompass the world" --Star Stephens [quote ends]

[quote begins] Wade used to tell me I could so anything iI want to do. He said I didn't need him or anybody to live a good life. Now I've got to prove he was right...Wade was like a daddy to me. He did more for me than my real daddy did. We're going to miss him.
-George Roberts [quote ends]


from the chains of oppressions he was arrested 15 times and proud of itl Several weeks ago Wade Blank's story, including the development of Atlantis and ADAPT, was officially accepted into the National Archives.

Wade, a passionate Cleveland Browns fan, was a loving husband, daddy, friend, organizer and leader. He valued and encouraged the unique contributions that each of us has to give to ourselves, each other and the world around us. We honor his contribution, value his friendship, and grieve the loss of our beloved friend and colleague. Wade was one of the few non-disabled allies of the disability rights movement who understood the politics of oppression. At times through the years, his leadership role was questioned, but he never lost sight of the vision, nor lacked the support of those he was close with.

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[image caption] Wade was a brilliant strategist who could pall a plan from thin air. A constant communicator, Wade got input from lots of folks and loved to Pro-passible out-comes of different strategies and tactics. Often, during a long day of protest, Wade would pull the leadership team over to "run different scenarios", as he put it. Photo: Tom Olin.

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Wednesday 24 July 2013

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Wednesday 9 October 2019

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