Our Work
Fernald’s Legacy
Ensuring We Never Forget Disability Rights History
Disability rights advocates share their experiences living and working in institutions for people with disabilities and discuss what communities need to do to honor the history of mass institutionalization.
Photo credit: Getty Images/Stockphoto
Creative Commons License BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia
With Panelists: Alex Green, Reggie Clark, Woody Gaw & Donna Jay
In 2020's waning months, activists rallied to oppose the decision of the City of Waltham, MA to approve using the grounds of the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center, the oldest institution for persons with disabilities in the United States, for a holiday light show. More about those efforts at rightsnotlights.com. Waltham's decision shone a light on how society may choose to forget the lurid legacy of such institutions rather than critically and publicly interrogate the role they played in shaping today's services, systems, and attitudes for persons with disabilities.
A conversation with self-advocates and institution survivors Reggie Clark, Woody Gaw, and Donna Jay about the legacy of the Fernald State School and other institutions alongside Alex Green, an historian, journalist, fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation, and adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.