We lost one of the greatest fighters for justice I have ever known over the weekend. Becky Ogle was the field general for the passage of the Americans for Disability Act; she played a huge role in the Clinton administration’s disability policy, especially as it related to employment of people with disability; and she led the Democratic Party’s outreach to the disabilities community (formally or informally) for decades. She was central to helping pass the ADA and the ACA, two of the biggest progressive achievements of the modern era, and she played a big role in stopping the ACA’s repeal as well, working with her beloved allied organizations in the disability rights movement to keep the heat on the Republicans.
But more than any specific biographical achievement, as significant as they were, was that no one ever fought the good fight for justice as hard or as brilliantly or as passionately as Becky Ogle. Every rally, every protest I ever went to with Becky was far more fun because of her joyful protests, including taking off her prosthetic leg and pounding it on the doors of corporations discriminating against people with disabilities. And she was one of the funniest people ever. She made working on serious, important issues fun, which is the best thing a good organizer can do.
Becky kept track of every disability rights group and leader in the country who knew how to organize. She could tell me the strengths and weaknesses of every group, locally and nationally, what they could bring to the fight.
A native of Tennessee, she had no use for DC elites who didn’t understand real people’s lives — what they needed from their government, how they talked, why they acted the way they did. People did what she asked them to do because they saw that she knew them and cared about them.
Becky was ill in one way or another much of her life, in and out of hospitals on a very regular basis. But somehow she never let that slow her down. Her fire and energy remained high through all her travails. Her spirit always remained strong.
It is always a blow to lose a warrior for justice. I will miss Becky Ogle for all of the rest of my life. Hopefully her love for the fight will now be felt by all of us touched by her great life.
Didn't know her, but she sounds like she was amazing