I was there . . .
Mark Johnson
Atlanta, 1996
Mark Johnson reads his narrative.
Three national ADAPT actions in 7 years in Atlanta. This year’s targets were the
American Health Care Association (AHCA), Republicans and Democrats.
Day 1
At a prearranged meeting ADAPT representatives from each state confronted
Speaker Newt Gingrich about his lack of leadership on HR 2020, CASA, and
ultimately hammered out an agreement to work together.
As these negotiations were taking place several hundred of us marched to the
plaza in Centennial Olympic Park to hold a press conference and rally. At the
press conference, Michigan ADAPT organizer Marva Ways read a resolution
indicting the United States regarding its policy of institutionalizing people
with disabilities. Emotions ran high as the crowd, in memory of friends and
family who have died in institutions, planted flags in the grassy hillside along
the plaza.
Day 2
Now it was time to confront the President. During the process of taking over the
Georgia Democratic headquarters, 86 of us got arrested. It was the eve of the
General Election, ironically Clinton lost Georgia. Faye Bonner, used her
Arkansas connections to get the White House to call Air force One. Special
Assistant to the President, Alexis Herman was flown to Atlanta to negotiate. She
listened to our concerns and agreed to set up a meeting with the President in
the first quarter of 1997, the protest ended about 11:00PM. One by one we were
released.
Day 3
It had been a late night, so we started out later than usual. We headed to the
Georgia Nursing Home Association. We shut down their offices and ultimately a
six-lane highway in front of the building. By 6PM, the police delivered Fred
Watson, the Association’s Executive Director, to us. Georgia ADAPT asked for his
support for their state version of CASA, but all we got was lip service and head
patting. At that point we lined up and marched to the nearest MARTA station.
After arriving at our rendezvous point we marched to the AHCA hotel: The
Marriott Marquis. The hotel had Red plush this, and gleaming chrome that;
Crystal dangling from here, and mirrors sparkling from there.
Best of all: the Marriott Marquis had a thirty-plus-story-high open atrium in
the center of the building.
We handcuffed ourselves together and started chanting. The echo worked its way
up the atrium to all the interior rooms. Looking down on us, Fred’s fellow AHCA
members. After a while some among us grew restless and started to crawl up a set
of escalators that had been turned off. The police made the AHCA conventioneers
leave the common areas, and began to arrest. City buses were lined up in the
circular drive in front of the hotel and busload-by-busload we were hauled off.
It was almost six in the morning before the last of the crowd, total, 101, was
taken away. About noon the last of us had been processed, released and brought
back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.
Party Time
After a long snap, wrap up meeting and a Southern buffet supper, DJ Leonard
Roscoe, himself freed from a state hospital in GA, had us rocking and rolling.
Intense private conversations, political debates and plenty of laughter
punctuated the party as folks from across the country enjoyed our last few hours
in the South.
A Little History
A brick has been placed in Olympic Centennial Park, at marker 200, to
commemorate this and the previous actions in Atlanta.