Justin Dart, Jr., a leader in the international disability rights movement and a renowned human rights activist, died on June 22, 2002, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 71.
Widely recognized as “the father of the Americans with Disabilities Act” and “the godfather of the disability rights movement,” for the past several years Dart had struggled with post-polio syndrome and congestive heart failure.
Dart was a leader in the disability rights movement for three decades, and an advocate for the rights of women, people of color, and gays and lesbians. The recipient of five presidential appointments and numerous honors, including the Hubert Humphrey Award of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Dart was on the podium on the White House lawn when former President George Bush signed the ADA into law in July 1990.
In recognizing Dart’s contributions in 1996, President Clinton said, “Justin Dart, in his own way, has the most Olympian spirit I believe I have ever come across.”
In 1998, Dart received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
“I call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who love life, to create a revolution that will empower every single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the society and to be fully productive of life quality for self and for all,” said Dart.
Dart, who logged four decades of advocacy for human rights in the USA, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany will be truly missed by everyone.
“To the critics who complain that ADA has not achieved total justice … I say what about the Bill of Rights and the Ten Commandments? Have they achieved total justice? The vision of justice is an eternal long march to the Promised Land of the good life for all.” – Justin Dart, Jr.
From the November 2002 issue of Diversity & The Bar®