Willowbrook
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Wolran Kim
Mar. 2012


Robert F. Kennedy, New York State Senator and brother of John F. Kennedy, had a press conference for the prosecution of human rights violations in the Developmental Disabilities facility in Willowbrook. Willowbrook State School building’s maximum capacity was 2,000 people, but there were more than 6,000 in 1965. A few photos of Willowbrook have a similar appearance to a scene in a black and white film of the Holocaust camp. No one would think this is the United States just 25 years ago, not even North Korea or the Soviet Union. It was incredible watching scenes where students with disabilities were thrown naked on the bathroom floor, their faces covered with filth and quickly eating with their hands. Two or three members of staff managed more than 70 children who had been left isolated all day long from the outside and their families.

Those with disabilities had to spend their life painfully for a lot of years as perfect underdogs while their families cried for them in the semi-coercive atmosphere of society filled with prejudice. Willowbrook was not a special school that teaches people with disabilities, but it was a place for isolation from their families and society. Unimaginable happenings about massive human rights violations in Willowbrook were exposed by broadcast and also directed to the nation’s attention about the reality of this large facility. This case was a catalyst that spread a movement of anti-facilities for disability and enacted the Disabled Act after instituting a group lawsuit of human rights abuses and excessive class-action in the United States. Finally, 10 years later, Development Disabilities Protection & Advocacy was introduced for those with disabilities that lived in facilities in 1975. There are currently 56 institutions operating including Indian reservations by P&A programs across the United States.

P&A agencies have tried to protect and keep their right from isolation, obsessive-compulsive, abuse, neglect, and various human rights abuses since the creation of the disabilities advocacy program. For example, a P&A agency in New York had tremendous success in minimizing isolation and obsessing with the special provincial authority and budget for 25 years. This agency investigated more than 5,000 death cases including hundreds of recommendations and reforms extensive facilities according to the survey results.

Willowbrook was completely closed in the mid-1980s, and the inhumane facility is still remembered to many people now, 25 years later. It is easy for people with disabilities to live in the shadow of mainstream society because they are born with disabilities without any cause. However, they need the same love, relationships, and families, and they also need special protection and assistance. Willowbrook is a precious spot that we should remember to develop our society and protect the human rights of disabilities with freedom and equality from fighting the past slavery.