Episode 8: Still Marching

1 year ago

Gerry Gordon Brown marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Frankfort in 1964. She continues to push for justice for all.

Thanks to Chris Ankin for use of his song, “Change.”

The book "A Celebration of Family: Stories of Parents with Disabilities." is available from Amazon here.

Send comments and questions to [email protected]

Demand and Disrupt is sponsored by the Advocado Press and the Center For Accessible Living.

Thanks to Steve Moore for the transcription which you can find in the show notes below when they become available.

Transcript

Kimberly Parsley:

Hello And Welcome Gerry Gordon-Brown To Demand And Disrupt, A Disability Podcast. Welcome, Gerry.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. My Life History. Okay. You're Going To Give Me An Opportunity To Say All Of The Things About Me.

Kimberly Parsley:

I Am. Welcome, Gerry. Tell Me All About Gerry Gordon-Brown.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. I Was Born -- My Name Is Gerry Gordon-Brown. Previously, Though, It's Geraldine Yvonne Gordon-Brown, Okay, But I Had To Cut Some Of That Out. It's Gerry Gordon-Brown. Okay? It Was Too Much. Okay. I Was Born 82 years Ago In Pulaski, Tennessee, A Small Town Located 71 Miles South Of Nashville. As Far As My Parents Knew, My Disability, Which Is Bilateral Profound Hearing Loss, Is Caused By My Parents' Rh Blood Factor. One Is Rh Positive And The Other One Is Rh Negative. Okay? And Then Also It's Due To Some Hereditary Factors On My Grandparents' Side, On My Father's Side. At That Time, In 1940, When I Was Born, The City's Economy Was Basically Farming, And Our City Of Pulaski Was Known For Show Horse, Walking -- Tennessee Walking Horses. And Of Course, We Learned A Great Deal About Farming, Because Everything That We Had On The Table Came From Farming To Bring It To The Table For Our Food. Also, My Mother Made All Of Our Clothes, More Or Less. Mom And Dad Did Not Attend College, But They Believed In Education. It Was Very Important, Instilled In Us. And By The Way, I Was The Oldest Of Four Children, And So I Had Three Girls And One Boy. My Two Sisters And I, We Did Attend College. I Went To Kentucky State College, But It's Now A University, And My -- And My Sisters Went To Tennessee State University In Nashville. Okay?

Throughout My Growing-Up Years, I Was Encouraged To Accept My Disability And To Speak Up On My Behalf. I Was The Product Of A Very Protective Environment, Both At Home And At College. My College Advisors Were Very Supportive, And Also My Roommates Were Very Supportive. In Later Years My Mother Became Very Ill With Tuberculosis While We Were Living In Tennessee. That Is The Reason That We Were Relocated In Louisville In 1946. Mom Came Here To Be Treated And She Stayed In Waverly Hills Sanatorium Three And A Half Long Years. My Sisters And I Were In Foster Care Here In Louisville. Mother Wanted Us To Be Near Her. Fortunately, We Had A Wonderful Foster Mother. We Kept In Contact With Her Until We Were Adults And She Passed Away. I Successfully Completed Elementary School, Junior High, In My Day, And It Was Known As Middle School, High -- And Also High School In Louisville, Kentucky, And Four Years Of College Without Hearing Aids. At That Time I Had A Great Deal Of Residual Hearing, And There Was No Hearing Aid Market -- On The Market To Fit My Hearing Loss. After Graduation From Central High School In Louisville, Kentucky, I Became A Client Of The Bureau Of Vocational Rehabilitation. That's The Name That It Was Known At That Time. But Now It Is The Department Of Vocational Rehabilitation. I Received A Bachelor's Degree From Kentucky State, A Master's Degree From Webster University, And I Successfully Completed A Graduate Level Of Peer Mentoring, Professional Studies Certification Program From Gallaudet In Washington, D.C. This Program Allowed Me To Do Advocacy On Behalf Of Hearing Impaired, The Deaf, The Deaf-Blind Who Sought Services And Adaptive Devices To Make Them Have A Better Quality Of Life. Thus I Had The Pleasure Of Assisting Many Consumers Who Are Hearing Impaired And To Some Degree Visually Impaired. I Have Been Married And Divorced, And After The Birth Of My Daughter, Carla, I Started Wearing One Aid In The Left Ear. And Then Later On My Hearing Decreased And I Now Wear Two Digital, High-Powered Aids Which Are Very Helpful In My Communication With Family, Friends, Consumers, And Also My Board, Board Of Directors Participation, And Also My Overall Travel And Participation In Daily Living Activities. In July Of This Year, I Plan To Travel To Canada To A Deaf-Blind.

Kimberly Parsley:

Wow.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Yeah. A Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Convention. I Have Worked In The Human Service Field In Three States: Ohio, Indiana, And, Of Course, Kentucky. It Has Been My Pleasure To Advocate For Consumers With All Kinds Of Disabilities Who Are Clients Of Vocational Rehabilitation. On July 31st, 2015, I Retired From Full-Time Employment With The Commonwealth Of Kentucky As --

Kimberly Parsley:

Congratulations.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Yeah. As Director Of The Kentucky Client Assistance Program. Throughout My Many Years Of Employment, I Have Received Many Awards. To Name A Few, The Arthur Campbell, Jr. Advocacy Award In 2011. The Charles Mcdowell Education And Advocacy Award In 2007. And In 2007, I Was Inducted Into The Kentucky Civil Rights Hall Of Fame.

Kimberly Parsley:

Wow.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay? In 2000 I Received The University Of Louisville Disability Awareness Award, Which Is The Bill Cox Lifetime Achievement Award.

On A Personal Level, Like I Stated, I Have One Daughter. I Have A Wonderful Daughter, Carla Elizabeth, Who Is Married To A Wonderful Son-In-Law, Kevin, And I Have Three Grandsons Whom I Refer To As My Three Wise Men, Jaren, Jalen, And Javon. I Attend Church And I Go To The Kentucky Center For The Arts, And Then When I Have A Little Free Time, I Work And Play With My Wonderful Great-Grandchildren. I Have Four. I Have Four, One Boy And Three Girls, From The Ages Of Seven To Seven Months. And That's Basically It On My Life Story.

Kimberly Parsley:

Wow. Wow. That Is A Lot.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Is That Okay?

Kimberly Parsley:

That Is Wonderful. Yes. That Is A Lot. So Tell Me About Your Experience Marching With Dr. king In The Sixties.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. With Pleasure. I Marched With Dr. king On March 5th, 1964, In Frankfort, To The Capitol To Lobby For The State Public Accommodation Bill. Dr. king Led 10,000 Black And White Kentuckians To The Capitol. Marching With Dr. king Was Jackie Robinson, The First Black Major League Baseball Player. A Famous Activist By The Name Of Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker And Lots And Lots Of Students From Kentucky State College, Me Being One Of Them. Having Marched With Dr. king Was One Of The Major Highlights Of My Senior Year At Kentucky State College, Which, Of Course, Is Now A University. I Graduated With A Bachelor Of Arts Degree In Sociology And A Minor In History In May 1964. Dr. king Came To Kentucky Frequently Because His Brother, Reverend A.D. King Was Pastor Of Zion Baptist Church In Louisville. I Also Attended Churches -- The Church When He Came To Town To Speak. He Was Very Personable And Friendly At All Times, Both At The March And In Louisville. Legislatures In The General Assembly Refused To Pass The 1964 House Bill Number 197, Which Was Desegregating Public Accommodations. Nevertheless, In 1966 The Governor Of Kentucky Signed The Civil Rights Act Into Law. There Were Two Anniversary Celebrations Of The March On Frankfort, First, 40th Anniversary Commemoration Of The March Of Frankfort Was Held March 3rd, 2004, Then On March 5th, 2014, We Celebrated The 50th Anniversary Of The Civil Rights March On Frankfort. It Was A Wonderful Occasion. My Family Came From Louisville And All My Staff And Her Family Marched With Me. There Was A Very Large Crowd Of Supporters That Came To Frankfort From Around The Kentucky Commonwealth. That's Basically It Unless You Have Questions, Kim.

Kimberly Parsley:

Wow. Well, I -- How Close Were You Able To Get To Dr. king During That March? I Don't Think A Lot Of People Know About That March At Frankfort, Do They?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Oh, Okay. Okay. Let Me See. Say What You Said, The Last Part, Because I Was -- It Was Being Blocked With The Recording Part.

Kimberly Parsley:

I Have To Remember. I Said I Don't Think A Lot Of People Know About That March On -- At Frankfort, Do They, Here In Kentucky?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. They Probably Don't. Probably The Only Time That They -- Like They Knew About It Was When We Had The Anniversary Celebration, Okay, The One In 2004, And Then The Big One For The 50th, It Was A Wealth Of People, A Lot Of People In Frankfort.

Kimberly Parsley:

Really?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

In 2014.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

And Various Speakers. John J. Johnson And Others, Many Others Who Spoke At That Particular Time.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh. Uh-Huh. So I'm Thinking Of Questions To Ask Here About That. So How Did You Feel? This Is A Question I Didn't Send You. So In '64, That Bill Didn't Pass.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

No, It Did Not Pass, You Know, Which Was A Disappointment For Us, But We Had Done The Best We Could As Far As Drumming Up Support For It. The Support Was There, But The Legislature, They Refused To. They Refused To Pass It. Fortunately, The Governor At That Time, Ned Breathitt, He Did Sign Into Law The Civil Rights Act Law In 1966. Nothing Was Really Done Until 1966.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh. Uh-Huh. But It's Always Important To Get Those -- That Groundswell Of Support, Isn't It?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Oh, That's Really To Bring Notice And Then, Of Course, There Was A Lot Of Written Up In The Newspapers Around The -- Around The State, You Know, Lexington, Louisville, So Forth And So On.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh. Uh-Huh. Yeah.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

So I Have Learned Over Time That The Newspaper Reporters Really Can Put Emphasis On Certain Topics That's Going On In The Community.

Kimberly Parsley:

Huh. Uh-Huh. And Do You Think That Method Is Effective Still Today?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Oh, Yeah, I Think It's Effective. I Think -- I Think It's Very Effective, Because Otherwise, Kim, I Don't Think You Would Know.

Kimberly Parsley:

Right.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

You Know, It Would Be Kept -- Kept So Quiet, But By Being In The Newspapers -- And Of Course I Realize We're In The Tech Age, Technology, But Everybody Doesn't Have A Computer, You Know.

Kimberly Parsley:

Right. Right.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

And Then, Of Course, The Television Too. So Yes, But I Really Don't Want To Leave The Newspaper Out, Because Personally, I Really -- We Subscribe, I Subscribe To The Louisville Paper.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

I Like Paper. I Like The Hard Copy In My Hand.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

So I Can Read It.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh. One Of The Things That We're Trying To Do Is Get Legislation That Would Make It Illegal To Take Away The Children Of A Parent Just Because The Parent Is Disabled, Because That Is Legal Right Now To Remove -- Remove A Child From The Home Simply Because The Parent Is Disabled, And That's Something We're Working On Overturning Right Now. So Maybe We Need To Try To Get Some Newspaper Coverage.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Oh, Yeah, I Think -- I Think The Newspaper Coverage Would Add More Weight To Our Particular Situation, And That's What I Was Going To Bring Up Too, Toward The End, About Our Book And Also The Fact That We Have This Ugly Law In Kentucky That Can Take Away Your Child Or Children Because You Have A Disability.

Kimberly Parsley:

Yes.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Which Is An Insult. It's An Insult.

Kimberly Parsley:

It Is. It Is An Insult. And You Know What, I Think I Will -- We Will Arrange To Have This -- The Link To This Podcast Sent To Legislators, And, You Know, They Don't Want To Be Lumped In With The Legislators In 1964, Right, Who Refused To Pass Legislation Desegregating Kentucky.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Oh, Yes. We Can't Do Too Much. And We're -- It's -- Our Time Has Come, And The Time Is Now.

Kimberly Parsley:

Excellent. That's Awesome. You're So Right. So The Next Thing, We're Talking About Disability. Tell Me How You Think The Disability Rights Movement Intersects, How Does Disability Rights Intersect With The Civil Rights Movement Of The Sixties?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. Okay. Disability Intersects With The Civil Rights Movement In The 1960s Or Even Now, I Think, Because We As Persons With Disabilities At That Time Were Fighting For Our Rights And Equality On All Areas, Even As Minorities. Even Though I'm African American, We Were Fighting -- We're Fighting The Same Battle, Basically, Because We Were Being Discriminated Against. When I Say "We," I Mean We As Minorities And We As Persons With Disabilities Were Being Discriminated Against In Such Areas As Housing, Employment, And Transportation. I Just Named A Few, But There Are Other Areas, Of Course, Of Which We Were Being Discriminated Against. For Me Personally, I Was Discriminated Against By The Local Hospital, Kim.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

I Passed Out -- I Passed Out In The Park During The Month Of June, Which Was Very, Very Hot, And Had To Be Transported To The Emergency Room. In The Process Of Being Transferred To The Emergency Room And Going Through The Application Process, After It Was All Done, I Was Trying To Get My Hospital Bill Paid, But I Had To Have My Records, And, Kim, When I Got My Records, Believe It Or Not, The Nurse Had Put In The Record That I Was Mentally Retarded.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Then I Tried To Do Advocacy On My Own Part With The Records Department Of That Local Hospital, But It Didn't Work, And I Ended Up Having To Get The Support Of A Lawyer. So With The Support Of The Lawyer, I Got That Information Taken Out Of My File At That Hospital. But Yes, We're Still Being Discriminated Against.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

When We -- When I Was Working Here In Louisville At The Center For Accessible Living, On A Weekend, The Derby Weekend, Back Early On, We Worked With Adapt. Do You Remember Adapt?

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh. Yes. Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. Adapt Representatives Came To Louisville On The Derby Weekend, And We Blocked The Buses.

Kimberly Parsley:

Oh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay?

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

As A Result Of Blocking The Buses, Tarc Decided To Hire A Person To Work With Us And To Make The Tarc Buses Accessible So --

Kimberly Parsley:

Do You Know What That Stands For?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

That Was A Really Extraordinary Event.

Kimberly Parsley:

That Is. Can You Tell People, What Is It, Tarc? What Does That Stand For?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Transit Authority Of River City.

Kimberly Parsley:

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yes. That's What That Is.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Yes. And Tarc Is For The -- Well, It Was The Bus -- Bus Service, The Local City Bus Service Here In Louisville.

Kimberly Parsley:

And What Was The Effect That Had?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Well, They Were Embarrassed, First Of All, Because We Had People In Wheelchairs That Was Parked In Front Of The Bus. They Were Embarrassed, So With That Embarrassment, It Opened Up Services For Us. So We Eventually Had Services, They Made Them Accessible To Us, They Were -- We Were Able To Ride The Buses.

Kimberly Parsley:

Excellent. That's Awesome.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

And Then Later On, You Know, We Had The Ada, Americans With Disabilities Act, But, Of Course, That Didn't Pass Until 1990, But Anyway, It Still Opened The Door, I Feel, For More Protection For Us As Persons With Disabilities.

Kimberly Parsley:

So Martin Luther King Day Celebrations Are Coming Up On Monday, January 16th, This Year. So Tell Me, How Do You Feel On That Day? What Do You Do To Celebrate And How Do You Feel On That Day?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Okay. In The Past, Kimberly, Here In Louisville, They Usually Have A Parade, A Parade On Broadway, And We -- And In The Past I Have Participated In That And Drove Our Car In That Parade And Took The Children With Me. And Then Also We Would End Up At A Local Church For Speeches And Also Various Persons Receiving Awards. I -- The Man That Was In Charge Of That Has Passed Away, So I Don't Know, I Assume It's Still Going On, But Even If That Is Not Going On, There Are Various Ceremonies, So To Speak, Around The City That Take Place In Memory Of Martin Luther King.

Kimberly Parsley:

Okay. Is There Anything Else You Want To Talk About About Dr. king Or About Activism, Anything At All?

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Yes. Yes. I Wanted To Add Just A Few More Things. Number One Was Our Book. Okay?

Kimberly Parsley:

Okay.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

Our Book, A Celebration Of Families, Stories Of Parents With Disabilities, Edited By Dave Matheis.

Kimberly Parsley:

Yes. Uh-Huh.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

I Just Wanted To Raise That, Because You And I, Among Others, We Did A Great Job With The Book, And Then Also With outstanding Help From Dave Roberts -- From Dave Matheis.

Kimberly Parsley:

Uh-Huh. Yes.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

So Definitely Our Book.

Kimberly Parsley:

Right.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

I Wanted To Say Thank You For Inviting Me To Speak About Martin Luther King.

Kimberly Parsley:

Oh, It's Been Wonderful. Thank You For Making The Time For Me. I Appreciate It. And We're Going To Get This Episode Out As Soon As We Can. Thank You, Gerry Gordon-Brown, For Joining Us. I Appreciate It So Much.

Gerry Gordon-Brown:

You Are Most Welcome.

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