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"Selma is a symbol of the resistance
To the right to vote
And for that reason
I will have to be here to march with
you tomorrow morning in Selma."
In 1965, when a peaceful march
for voting rights turned violent in Alabama
a call went out for more support.
Among the activists who turned out in force to make their way from Selma to
Montgomery was a priest studying law at Catholic University named Joseph Cooney.
He returned to Washington determined to work for social justice.
"That following summer
I worked as a volunteer
on what was called the SCOPE; voter registration,
then I went full-time
starting this community on 11th St.,
and from there the legal service evolved."
Eleventh street Northeast near Union Station and the H St. corridor
was a once thriving neighborhood in decline.
Right across this alley, Cooney says
stood a homeless shelter for African-American men.
"We had no plans, no big plans.
It just grew out of the fact that there were two priests
that happened to be lawyers and the needs of this community around us."
Just seven months after opening University Legal Services
Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, Tennessee.
"When Dr. King was killed,
the whole city exploded.
I drove around the city, H St. was burning, 7th St., Anacostia,
it was very difficult.
And we became a food distribution point
for the city because all the other places had been looted."
The neighbors helped with deliveries and they protected the office.
"The neighbors didn't want University Legal Services to be harmed in any way
and
so wrote SOUL
S-O-U-L,
across the door of University Legal Services, to let the neighbors know
that these people here are helping us in the community and
they're part of the community."
The riots scarred the city
but also set in motion a new push for social justice.
"We had a shift in consciousness I think,
that you might have been low-income,
you might have been poor but you had rights
and that you lived in a country that
prided itself on being just and fair.
So I think people took that and ran with it." "I believe your background is in urban psychology and dealing with people in the so-called ghetto."
For district residents that meant meant exercising their civil rights in a way that impacted daily life.
"This is a people's victory,
a victory for community control."
Many civil liberties ULS defended then and defends now concern housing.
Affordable housing for the poor,
accessible housing for people with disabilities and help for
homeowners like Elynore Herron.
"I needed some help because this is my family home, we moved here in
1957.
So to think about
trying to lose it or something just was really disconcerting."
Herron consulted a University Legal Services housing counselor.
"Ms. Annie Tyson,she was my counselor that helped me get the papers together
and tell me what submit
especially the hardship letter."
Counselors help with loan modifications and many other assistance programs.
"At the end of the day
my house note was reduced $1,000, and that made me feel really good,
because i'm still here
and I'll be able to leave it for my kids."
ULS knows how to help because they pioneered the concept. "It's historic really,
because that's how housing counseling developed in the District of Columbia."
"We stumbled into it,
because that's the need that occurred."
ULS founders may have stumbled into housing issues, but they
went to court to challenge and change housing laws.
Landmark cases include Harvey vs. Dunphy.
"Harvey vs. Dunphy was the first
housing-discrimination jury trial in the District."
Another case, Mendes versus Johnson.
"Mr. Mendes was an attorney who decided
to just put his tenants on the street."
In Mendes v. Johnson, it was determined
that landlords would have to go to court
in order to evict tenants."
The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act
also helped District residents.
"This is an opportunity for the tenants to buy their buildings and control
their own destiny control their own costs
and maintain affordable housing in the District."
The law gave renters first right of refusal to buy their buildings
and ULS helped them organize to do that.
Jane Brown started at ULS as a tenant litigation attorney.
"We would go out and meet with the tenants at night on the weekends whenever was
convenient for them and make sure that they were registered with the city
that they understood their rights and the timelines and they had to get all the paperwork and
create their tenant association.
Not only did it lead to homeownership
for individuals who had never owned homes before, and therefore providing a
stable environment for them and their families,
but it also secured neighborhoods."
While the fight for housing continued
a new cause emerged;
protecting and advocating for some of the city's most vulnerable citizens.
People like Donna and Ricardo Thornton.
The Thorntons' grew up in Forest Haven,
a virtual warehouse where the city locked away children with cognitive
disabilities.
"You're in an institution how do you get out and you got the 'R' word that's going to be with you for the rest of your life,
that's how we felt."
The denial of rights went further says ULS lead attorney Sandy Bernstein.
"They were a witness to and subjected to abuse
and neglect; they were denied an appropriate education;
they watched family members and
friends die - and suffer."
After a long battle with the city Forest Haven closed in 1991.
Five years later ULS became the city's designated protection and
advocacy agency enforcing the rights and welfare of district residents with
disabilities. Then ULS attorneys discovered hundreds of former Forest
Haven residents still needed protection.
"When we heard the institution was closing we were like YES!
Forest Haven is closing!
We were excited but
when we came into the community we found out that,
wait a minute, they're closing
but we still
got the same institution right here in the community."
Not all communities welcome persons with disabilities
and not all group homes deliver the quality of life promised by courts.
But with vigilant advocacy
many people lead fulfilling lives.
pictures with me that remind me why we "On my wall in front of my desk I like to keep do this work.
"I know you know everybody so if anybody you know used to live in Forest Haven has some
medical bills..."
"We will work very hard to ensure our clients are not abused and neglected."
"Thank you so much Sandy."
As part of its protection and advocacy work
ULS documents hundreds of assaults, physical injuries, deprivation and
financial exploitation.
From group homes and mental health community residential facilities, to youth
centers called residential treatment centers
and the long troubled St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital.
To see the payoff of their work
ULS staff members need only look around.
"The fact that H St. was named by the City Paper
as D.C.'s hippest street is something that you wouldn't have envisioned even a few
short years ago."
But along with prosperity
come new challenges related to affordable housing.
It's a challenge that keeps counselors busy. "I am looking to buy a new home."
"When I see the person that already went through the whole process
and they are happy in their home
and they call me and they say 'We went to settlement Ana Maria
and you know we moved in and we're owners
instead of renters,'
that's very satisfying."
And ULS continues to open new fronts in the fight for social justice. "It seemed
that the prisons and jails in this country had become
defacto
psch wards
and so i thought well you shouldn't have to go to jail
to receive mental health treatment.
So, ULS creates programs to identify and connect inmates with mental health
services that can follow them into the community.
They also work with the city's rehabilitation agency charged with
helping people with disabilities find employment.
"Well I think at this particular time
we've moved to the point where persons with disabilities are
very much discriminated against especially getting jobs."
Under one contract with the city ULS provides a wide range of
assistive devices.
Moving people from institutions to independent living remains a fundamental
goal pursued with dedication.
"Good afternoon, University Legal Services."
"This isn't just a job
This isn't just a lawsuit.
This is about people's lives and getting them what they are entitled to."
After bearing witness to nearly 50 years of changes
in the nation
in the city
and the neighborhood
Joe Cooney says the fight for social justice continues. "Our purpose
at that time was service;
to be a community of service and what's so great
about the present people at ULS is that
we have a wonderful staff that has that same
dedication
that we're here to help people
with their particular needs, not to have some kind of a master plan that we
superimpose on our clients. We take them where they are
and try to do the best we can
to move them forward."