5 Women of Color You Didn’t Know Were Disabled

Aug 3

1. Harriet Tubman

Tubman via Wikipedia - Image by Horatio Seymour Squyer, 1848 - 18 Dec 1905 - National Portrait Gallery

Harriet Tubman was a fearless American abolitionist. Having escaped enslavement herself using the underground railroads, she went on to help over 300 enslaved African Americans find freedom . She even earned the name “Moses” for her leadership. What people don’t know is that she suffered from narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder where one has the tendency to fall asleep in relaxed settings. Harriet suffered from this due to a head injury at the age of 12: an angry overseer chucked a weight at another enslaved person, but it hit Harriet instead, causing her a lifetime of headaches and seizures. Despite her injuries, the overseer did not call for medical attention, but instead sent her back to work. These untreated injuries are what eventually caused Tubman’s narcolepsy. Sometimes, Tubman would fall asleep in the middle of conversations and even missions. She also experienced other neurological symptoms including vivid dreams, hallucinations, visions, and hearing voices. Harriet believed her visions and dreams were messages from God, thus the inspiration for her rescues. She believed that it was God’s will to use her to bring freedom to enslaved people. Although Harriet struggled because of her disability, it is also a strength which enabled her to help many enslaved individuals escape to freedom.

2. Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American poet as well as a civil rights activist. She additionally worked as a singer, actress, composer, dancer, and Hollywood’s first female Black director, but she found her greatest joy and success as a writer/poet. Throughout her life, she achieved many accomplishments, especially as a Black woman living in the 1950s. But at age 8, she was sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend, and soon after her uncle murdered her rapist. This left Angelou with an anxiety disorder called selective mutism, a disorder that causes a child not to speak due to trauma. For Maya, this lasted up to 5 years. Angelou wrote, “I thought my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name,” She later said, “And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone.” During her experience Maya Angelou improved her listening, observing and memorizing skills which helped her later to have a successful career. During this time, her love for books and literature also expanded. Though the cause for her disability is devastating, it is also the reason why she is an amazing poet. She taught us that we can find power in our voice and in our silence.

3. Frida Kahlo

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940) by Frida Kahlo — *Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird* *(1940) by Frida Kahlo*

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist, most famous for her self portraits and works inspired by Mexican culture. Kahlo was a communist revolutionary, whose activism centered around women's rights, the lgbtq+ community, and people with disabilities. She is often recognized by her unibrow, which she claimed is a statement rejecting expectations for how a woman should look and stereotypes of what makes a woman “attractive” in our society. Unfortunately, she contracted polio as a young child which damaged her right leg, leaving her with a limp. At the age of 18, she was in a bus accident that sent a handrail through her pelvis, causing severe spinal damage. Her injuries left her in a wheelchair. At the time, Kahlo was a promising medical student, but after her accident she chose to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an artist. Frida Kahlo has always been open about her disabilities and often showed them in her self portraits, for instance in “The Broken Column” painting and “Tree of Hope, Remain Strong'' painting. She expresses her constant pain in her art. Kahlo said, “I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.” Though her disabilities caused her a lifetime of pain, they also inspired the thousands of great pieces she created. Frida Kahlo was living proof that disabilities shouldn’t hold people back.

4. Lois Curtis

Lois Curtis is an African American artist and activist for people with disabilities. Lois has had intellectual and development disabilities and schizophrenia her whole life, and was often forced to live in carceral mental hospitals and state-run mental institutions. When she was 11, she was sent to Georgia Regional Hospital and remained there until age 29. Multiple requests for her to live in the community independently were denied. In 1999, Lois Curtis started a lawsuit suing the state of Georgia for violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and her case was taken to the Supreme Court. The court later declared that people with disabilities have a right to live in the community and to be given support from the state, and unnecessary institutionalization is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court's decision was a huge breakthrough for the Disability Rights movement. Many individuals were given the opportunity to live ordinary lives with support if needed. Lois currently lives in her own home in Georgia with support from Home and Community Based Services. She is now pursuing her dream of being an artist, which she was unable to do during her years in the institution. For her activism, she has received the Harriet Tubman Act of Courage Award. Lois Curtis shows us that her disability doesn’t make her any less deserving of a life filled with love and care.

5. Fannie Lou Hame

Hamer at the 1964 DNC by Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report Magazine, via Wikipedia

Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist who fought against voter suppression. In 1963, Hamer was returning from a voter registration workshop when she was arrested for sitting in the “white” section of a Greyhound bus along with other civil rights activists. At the county jail, white officers ordered two Black prisoners to beat Hamer with loaded blackjacks until they were too exhausted, and she was nearly killed. The beating left her disabled with a severe limp, going blind in one of her eyes, and permanent kidney damage. In 1964, she successfully ran for Congress and became the first Black woman to do so. That same year, her testimony at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on the abuse she endured simply trying to vote was broadcasted nationally despite white people in power trying to silence her. Her speech was so powerful that President Lyndon Johnson had to intentionally interrupt it with an emergency press conference, but it was later aired on the evening news for the entire country to hear.

Hamer continued her activism to empower African Americans to use their right to vote despite what felt like the entire world telling them not to. Her disabilities caused her constant pain for the rest of her life and was eventually the cause of her death in 1977. She is known for saying, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Her famous quote was even engraved on her tombstone. Hamer serves as an example that disability does not weaken an individual’s spirit, and we must build a world that cherishes, uplifts, and makes accessible accommodations for disabled people.

It is important to acknowledge these women’s disabilities and remove the stigmatization surrounding disabilities overall. They were able to accomplish so much regardless of the pain they endured or the struggle of their disability. These women were strong, capable, and powerful, and it is crucial that we recognize their achievements as inseparable from their identity as disabled people of color.

Header photo via National Museum of American History

Written by Leah Kibuta