Kitty Cone

Cone died on March 21, 2015, of pancreatic cancer in Berkeley, California, two weeks shy of her 71st birthday.

After the Section 504 regulations were signed, Cone focused on transportation. She pursued implementation of Section 504 by protesting at the San Francisco Transbay Terminal in 1978, organizing Disabled People's Civil Rights Day in October 1979 in San Francisco, and lobbying in Washington against the Cleveland Amendment, which would have allowed local agencies to provide paratransit services instead of creating accessible public transportation systems. In 1984 she began working at the World Institute on Disability, where she researched international personal care assistance programs. She was among 500 attendees at a protest at the San Francisco City Hall September 27, 1987, while a public transit conference was being held at the Moscone Convention Center. In 1990 she began working for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)'s lawyer referral service, and in 1993 she became its development director. She retired in 1999, but remained active with DREDF.

Cone was unable to marry her partner, Kathy Martinez, due to legal restrictions on gay marriage. In 1981, she moved to Mexico with Martinez and adopted her son Jorge from Mexico. She was an alcoholic and stopped drinking in the 1970s.

Cone organized and participated in the 504 Sit-in. Initially Joseph Califano, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, refused to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the first U.S. federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities. After an ultimatum and deadline, demonstrations took place in ten U.S. cities on April 5, 1977, including the beginning of the 504 Sit-in at the San Francisco Office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This sit-in, led by Judith Heumann and Cone, lasted until May 4, 1977, a total of 28 days, with more than 150 people refusing to leave. It is the longest sit-in at a federal building to date. Joseph Califano signed the unaltered regulations on April 28, 1977.

After short stints in Chicago and Atlanta, Cone moved to Oakland, California in 1974 and connected with the Center for Independent Living. She liked the work they were doing and approached Ed Roberts about working with the Center for Independent Living. Cone had experience in political organizing, so she was hired for the Community Affairs Department. For years, she worked in the Community Affairs Department doing health and welfare lobbying, organizing local, state, and national political efforts, and worked on architectural and transportation barriers to access. It was there that she organized a coalition and began getting ramps and curb cuts installed in Oakland.

In the spring of 1967, Cone moved to New York and continued her Anti-War efforts she started while at the University of Illinois.

She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She began using a wheelchair on campus and had to learn how to do daily activities while using a wheelchair. She was active in cheerleading and Student Senate. While running for Student Senate, she was interviewed by Roger Ebert, who at the time, was editor of The Daily Illini. At the end of her first year of college, her mother died suddenly. She had cancer, but Cone did not know about it. It is said her mother was misdiagnosed with what was referred to as nerves. She finished the semester, but returned home after the semester was over to help with her younger brother and stayed home through the fall semester of 1963. Her next year of school she got involved with the NAACP. It was at this time that she was heavily involved with the Civil Rights Movement.

Kitty Cone (April 7, 1944 – March 21, 2015) was an American disability rights activist. She had muscular dystrophy. She moved to the California Bay Area in 1972, and began working as a community organizer for the disability rights movement in 1974.

Curtis Seldon Cone (Kitty) was born on April 7, 1944, in Champaign, Illinois. Their family moved to Florida once her father returned from World War II. Her father was a lawyer during their time in Florida, but left the firm, joined the army once again, and the family moved to Georgia.