We will ride! – The Gang of 19

“We will ride!” The origin of the disability rights movement in Denver.

Some of the foundational protests that ignited the disability rights movement took place on July 5-6, 1978, just around the corner from the Denver Public Library at Colfax and Broadway. Men and women of the Atlantis community, known as “The Gang of 19,” threw themselves in front of buses in an attempt to convey their disenfranchisement. This group blocked the intersection all day and night, chanting their mantra, “We will ride!” until representatives of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) were willing to talk about the absence of wheelchair-accessible buses. It was this initial protest that brought public light to the many other kinds of discrimination and abuse faced by the disabled community.

[Source: https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/we-will-ride-origin-disability-rights-movement-denver-0]