I was there . . .
Erik von Schmetterling
Philadelphia, 1989
Erik von Schmetterling reads his narrative.
ADAPT COMES TO PHILLY
Philly meets ADAPT on May 1, of 1989 and I was there! ADAPT came to Philadelphia
to support attorney Tim Cook in the very important case regarding our right to
ride public transportation ADAPT vs Burnley. This case was being reheard by the
US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. ADAPT wanted to remind everyone
involved with this case that it was a civil rights case for disabled people to
truly be free they had to be able to get from a to b.
Not everyone from ADAPT could make that Action since there was very little
notice, but even with the short notice there was quite a good turn out. There
was representation from California, Colorado, Washington, DC, Georgia,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Disabled In Action gave a
lot of support to this Action as did Cord who brought a lot of people from
Massachusetts.
Friday the ADAPT protesters gathered at the Federal Court building, after only
four protesters got inside the building the security officers blocked all the
entrances. Thus, the negotiations began. ADAPT was told that Attorney General
Thornburg was on a plane and could not be reached. Finally after sometime passed
and they knew we meant business they came back and told us that they found Mr
Thornburg and that he would be willing to speak directly to us. In that meeting
people felt that he was visually moved with how important this was to the
disabled community. Carol Marfisi was among the ADAPT people who participated in
that meeting.
Saturday other Philly members joined ADAPT in attempting to board buses that did
not have a lift. ADAPT members crawled on buses, others chanted, held signs and
blocked buses after about one hour the police came by and asked us what would it
take to get us off the street. By this time we had blocked three lanes of
traffic. We agreed to leave if that could get us some media and they went off
and tried to get the news to come out and see what we were doing.
Sunday the sun shined as we got ready for our March and Vigil. Many of us
dressed in revolutionary garb, wigs, the three-corner hat, and long dresses.
Lori Eastwood, Babs Johnson and Diane Coleman had made a flag just like old
glory but the stars formed the international access sign.
We marched from Independence Hall as its bells rang at 4:00 pm on the eve of our
historic case. We marched through cobbled streets chanting: “Access is a civil
right,” and “We will ride.” We march for justice; we knew we could not lose. We
formed a circle around the Liberty Bell. We listened to the history and when the
building closed we shared are own stories about the struggle for transportation
and Mark Johnson read the Declaration of Independent for Disabled People. We
started to chant again and we planned to do our vigil at the liberty bell; but
we where forcefully removed by the police.
This did not stop ADAPT. We instead slept in front of the Federal Building, and
in the wee hours of early morn, we could be found grilling some hotdogs and
watching ourselves on TV. It got very chilly but as we listened to the story we
realized that we wanted to be on every ADAPT Action from now on. ADAPT folks
where cool and nothing would stop them from getting the word out about are
rights. I knew “we would ride” with ADAPT on the case. All night long the media
folks kept coming and our stories were all over the news.
That night Cassie, John and I slept out with ADAPT. We vowed to support ADAPT in
all their future actions.
Tim Cook did a great Job in court and many more advocates from Philly joined to
hear the case in the morning. This was an important case. The cap on spending
was removed so it was possible to make public transportation accessible, an
important step in getting access in public transportation.
Back then our dream was to get on the bus and now we do ride! Tim Cook was ADAPT
first Lawyer, we all miss Tim. He worked here in Philadelphia and Steve Gold was
a mentor. Often they worked on transportation cases together. We as disabled
people look back at Tim Cook’s life and realize that much of his early adult
life was spend working on our right to ride public transportation and he also
worked on access cases. He had a National law practice committed to disability
cases in Washington DC.