"They frequently lived out their lives in isolation and despair."
~Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Historical Background
Persons with intellectual disabilities often were not respected before the 1960s. People who saw those who had an intellectual disability often held negative attitudes toward them, ignored them, neglected them, and discriminated against them ("Eunice Kennedy Shriver"). They were known as the "retarded." Many weren't even being educated. Children in the U.S. with intellectual disabilities added stress to their families that others could not comprehend. Many children were sent to institutions, where they often lived their lives in misery ("Life in the Shadows").
"July 1968 was a fertile time for change, a time when the culture was open to new ideas, a time to bend the old norm and shape a new one. The Chicago Games, in short, united people with intellectual disabilities with so many others (women, minorities, the young) who were also searching for their basic civil rights, never mind freedom." ("1968 Games")
"July 1968 was a fertile time for change, a time when the culture was open to new ideas, a time to bend the old norm and shape a new one. The Chicago Games, in short, united people with intellectual disabilities with so many others (women, minorities, the young) who were also searching for their basic civil rights, never mind freedom." ("1968 Games")
"They had often found themselves condemned
to institutions that did little more than warehouse them, where they frequently lived out their lives in isolation and despair." ~Eunice Kennedy Shriver ("Life in the Shadows")
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"A child with retardation born to a family in America provided a burden which few could comprehend." ~Eunice Kennedy Shriver ("Life in the Shadows")
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"Those of us who have seen children live in the
shadow know that a country as rich as ours can't possibly justify this neglect." ~John F. Kennedy ("Life in the Shadows")
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"Now things began to happen, centers were built and funded for research and human development
and the causes of mental retardation." ~Eunice Kennedy Shriver ("Life in the Shadows")
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"But most important, with outside support, individuals began to start back
to their homes and to their families and to those who cared most about them." ~Eunice Kennedy Shriver ("Life in the Shadows")
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"I hope in the 1960's these years will be known as the years in which the United States took the leadership and the great effort to make it possible." ~John F. Kennedy ("Life in the Shadows")
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"Hundreds who had been discriminated
against were now no longer discouraged from entering the work force." ~Eunice Kennedy Shriver ("Life in the Shadows")
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"Because in their faces and in their eyes they
have assured us of what we already know, that they are apart of us." ~Eunice Kennedy Shriver ("Life in the Shadows")
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