History Note – Was it heartless humor or clever commentary?
Throughout the first two weeks of September 1889, the St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers reported that no jurors had yet been selected […]
Author Archives: Luther Granquist
State special education laws evolved over time
In March 1915 the Minnesota Legislature passed the state’s first special education law. William North, a young man in the brokerage business […]
Then as now, immigration proved to be controversial
Recently, immigration and how it should be regulated has been in the headlines. Unfortunately, a look back to 1888 shows […]
Pioneering pastor struggled to find transportation
In June 1972 Barbara Andrews was one of a group of persons with disabilities who urged the Bill of Rights […]
Then as now, award winner spoke out for our rights
2012 Charlie Smith Award winner Charles Van Heuveln has long been a champion of disability rights. The remarks below by […]
Travel arrangements would be unacceptable today
The Wright County Eagle for Friday, July 31, 1874 reported that Sheriff John Nugent had come through Delano the previous […]
A leader with promise had life cut short by illness
Anna Johnson, her husband, and her six-month-old child left Norway in April 1868 bound for Fillmore County in Minnesota. The […]
Forgotten lives can now be found
More than 2,500 patients lie buried in three St. Peter State Hospital cemeteries. In the earliest cemetery, established shortly after […]
Dr. Mattocks: an early advocate for Minnesota children
There is a contemporary flavor to newspaper reports of the debate in the 1879 legislature about what to do about […]
In a word: Ballot’s outcome hinges on language
“Shall the Minnesota constitution be amended to require all voters to present valid photo identification to vote and to require […]
Changes removed barrier to community integration
The Minnesota Department of Human Services agreed in 2011 to develop a comprehensive plan to provide services for persons with […]
Babies benefitted greatly from one doctor’s research
In October the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the Minnesota Department of Health could not retain blood samples from the […]
Court approves METO settlement agreement
After a two-hour hearing in federal district court on Thursday, Dec. 1, Judge Donovan Frank ordered final approval of the […]
The little girl and the Great Communicator, years later
Thirty years ago, on Nov. 10, 1981, President Ronald Reagan told a story about an Iowa girl story at a […]
Lives Worth Living airs in October Show explores disability movement history
While there are close to 50 million Americans living with disabilities, Lives Worth Living is the first television history of […]
Minnesota: Budget balancing or a lack of due process? -A historical perspective on past state impasses
During the government shutdown in July, Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin ruled that certain government functions must be […]
Acting together is necessary
In 1995 Gov. Arne Carlson’s administration proposed to scale back the Tax Equity & Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) […]
Educable children
Advocacy groups, supportive members of the Minnesota Legislature, and a University of Minnesota professor collaborated to achieve approval by the […]
Southwest State welcomed students with a broad spectrum of disabilities
Southwest Minnesota State was touted as a college intended to accommodate students with disabilities when it opened in Marshall in […]
Sound the Trumpets – Bringing those barriers down
The Minnesota Society for Crippled Children and Adults persuaded the 1963 Minnesota Legislature to pass, unanimously, a requirement that new […]
Families created the Worthington Crippled Children’s School
In the early 1950s, many children with physical disabilities were denied education in the public schools. Parents also lacked in-home […]
Lindsay School offered therapy services, education for children
In 1929 the Ramsey County Committee of the recently organized Minnesota Association for Crippled Children urged the City of St. […]
Fight for Human Rights was lengthy
The Minnesota House, in 1973, had approved a bill supported by Handi-Registration, a self-advocacy group seeking to protect the civil […]
Before the ADA, activists fought for human rights
(First in a two-part series) May 1973, 17 years before Congress passed the ADA, the Minnesota Legislature added persons with […]
Treatment of men was unspeakably cruel, painful
Editor’s note: The topic of this month’s History Note, while important in the context of past treatment of people with […]
Conscientious objectors, media exposés, and institutional reform brought change for many
Editor’s note: Access Press uses its 20th anniversary issue history note to salute others who have used the news media […]
Bill Sackter’s story highlights need for apologies
In 1983 the Minnesota Department of Public Welfare filed a claim for almost $10,000 against the estate of Bill Sackter […]
Utica cribs were an early, cruel form of confinement
Dr. Samuel Shantz, the first superintendent of the Minnesota Hospital for the Insane in St. Peter, had previously worked as […]
Michael Dowling was a pioneer in disability rights in Minnesota
The 1880 census report for Wergeland Township in Yellow Medicine County gave 14-year-old Mike Dowling’s occupation as “herding cattle.” Although […]
An early challenge: locating deaf and blind students
The 1858 law establishing the Minnesota State Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb required that its Board […]
Gerald Walsh led The Arc in major change of course
In the 1950s and 1960s the Minnesota Association for Retarded Children, led by Gerald Walsh, prepared most and instigated all […]
‘Ugly laws’ were a very ugly way to discriminate
In 1881, Chicago added the infamous “ugly law” to its Municipal Code: “No person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated […]
Institutionalized children lived in bleak conditions
Minnesota has a long history of placing children in institutions. From January 1867 through October 1881 about 120 children were […]
Her commitment to Minnesota’s disability community and its institutionalized children is recognized
When Anne Henry, the recipient of this year’s Access Press Charlie Smith Award, is asked what she considered the most […]
Restraints were just plain wrong back then, too
METO, the Minnesota Extended Treatment Option at Cambridge, opened in 1999 to serve persons with developmental disabilities who present a […]