The courtroom fell silent. How could someone who couldn’t see serve as a juror? But Don Galloway had a crucially important question for the judge.
Was his dismissal from this murder case about his Blackness, or about his blindness?
Black jurors were too often dismissed in murder cases, and Galloway was not about to allow a racist court system to marginalize him.
Galloway sued the court and won! “I don’t have to see a gun. I could feel the gun or have someone describe it to me,“ he said. “They are making the assumption that I can’t perceive or make judgments.” But that was just the beginning of his quest for justice.
Galloway worked for decades, across the world, to ensure disabled Black people were treated fairly in terms of housing, education, and employment.
Every step of the way he destroyed barriers for both Black and disabled communities. He did something else, too.
He used his intersecting identities – Black AND disabled – to advocate for social justice. Galloway empowered himself and others by knowing his history and his identity. We, too, must fight for justice using every aspect of who we are!