Johnnie Lacy
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Johnnie Ann Lacy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 26, 1937 Huttig, Arkansas |
| Died | November 15, 2010 (aged 73) Hayward, California |
| Movement | Disability rights, civil rights, independent living |
| Honours | Woman of the Year, California State Senate (1988) |
Johnnie Ann Lacy (1937–2010) was a black disability rights and civil rights advocate, community leader, and activist. She was a leading advocate for the independent living movement, and helped found the country's first Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, California.[1] She later served as the director of the Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL), a nonprofit in Hayward, CA that provides advocacy, mentoring, and other services for people with disabilities. Lacy served on the California Attorney General's Commission on Disability, Hayward's Commission on Personnel and Affirmative Action, and the Mayor's Disability Council for the city and county of San Francisco.
Johnnie Ann Lacy was born on January 26, 1937, in Huttig, Arkansas, to Willie McHenry Lacy Sr. and Alice Lorraine Carrington Lacy.[2] Lacy attended segregated schools in Monroe, Louisiana until the age of 10, when she and her family moved to McCloud, California.[3]
In 1954, she graduated from high school in McCloud, CA, where she served as class president.[2] She attended college at Chico State College in Chico, CA to study nursing. At age 19, while working as a student nurse at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, she contracted polio, which left her paralyzed and she began using a wheelchair.[4]
Lacy began taking classes on special education at San Francisco State University in 1958, and wanted to specialize in speech therapy.[5] The head of the department actively discouraged her enrollment and told her that if she applied he would deny her application.[5][6] She was allowed to take classes, but when she graduated in 1960, she was not permitted to participate in the graduation ceremony.[7]
As a black woman with a disability, Lacy often felt excluded from various advocacy communities, and fought relentlessly for a more intersectional approach to racial justice and disability rights.[8]