This morning, several emails alerted us to the death of Harriet McBryde Johnson.
Harriet, whose voice, work and words touched people all over the world, passed away last night. Details are unknown – and to me, anyway – unimportant.
What is important is that Harriet lived a life devoted to the pursuit of social justice and became one of the most important voices to the nondisabled world from inside the disability rights movement.
We’re all still in shock, but Not Dead Yet president and founder Diane Coleman wrote the following to some friends today when she heard the news:
Dear friends,
I just learned through another email list that Harriet McBryde Johnson passed away last night.
This is a terrible shock. Harriet and I shared so much, spinal muscular atrophy, being attorneys (she with an active practice), work against euthanasia. She has been a sister in the struggle. Beyond perhaps all others in our movement, her writings have moved millions. This is such a severe loss.
Frankly, we’re all still pretty much at a loss for words. So I’ll share the words that others have written about Harriet and also direct you to some words written by Harriet herself.
About Harriet:
New Mobility “Person of the Year” (2004) Harriet McBryde Johnson: A Life Lived Well
Written by Harriet:
NY Times: Unspeakable Conversations
Slate: Not Dead at All: Why Congress was right to stick up for Terri Schiavo
Step-by-Step Guide to Organizing a Protest Against the Jerry Lewis Telethon
First and short version of Harriet’s obituary in the Charleston Post and Courier:
Harriet McBryde Johnson, a well-known Charleston disability and civil rights attorney, died Wednesday.
“She worked yesterday. It’s a shock to everybody,” said friend and attorney Susan Dunn.
She was born July 8, 1957, and had been a Charleston resident since age 10.
She told The Post and Courier that she became an attorney because her disability-rights work had taught her something about the impact of law on how people live.
She specialized in helping people who couldn’t work get Social Security benefits.
She was chairwoman of the Charleston County Democratic Party executive committee (1988-2001); city party chair (1995-2000); secretary of city party (1989-95); national convention delegate (1996); president, Charleston County
Democratic Women (1989-91); County Council candidate (1994); and a certified
poll manager.Funeral arrangements are pending at Fielding Home For Funerals.
Johnson, who was born with a neuromuscular disease, drew national attention for her opposition to “the charity mentality” and “pity-based tactics” of the annual Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy telethon. Lewis told the Chicago Tribune he had no intention of making peace with opponents such as Johnson. He likened the idea of meeting with them to entertaining Hezbollah or insurgents in Iraq.
The protests started after Lewis wrote a 1990 Parade magazine article in which he imagined being disabled. Among his conclusions, “I realize that my life IS half, so I must learn to do things halfway. I just have to learn to try to be good at being half a person.”
Read more in tomorrow’s edition of the Post and Courier.
Finally (for now, anyway), I owe Harriet thanks for my inclusion in the upcoming book, Peter Singer Under Fire: The Controversial Philosopher Faces His Critics. Her insistence on including the NDY critique was the reason we were included, since she made her own inclusion in the book contingent on a piece from us. –Stephen Drake