From the start, the disability rights movement has been inextricably interwoven with Black Americans’ fight for civil rights.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s inspired many disability rights advocates, who used the model and tactics demonstrated by Black activists to pursue deinstitutionalization and legal rights.

Black disabled activists, as well as Black supporters without disabilities, provided instrumental support to the disability rights movement from the beginning—and strong alliances linked the two movements.