Acclaimed disability rights advocate Thomas Mangrum dies at 61

Thomas Magnum Jr., a lifelong D.C. resident, widely recognized and acclaimed advocate for people with disabilities, and LGBTQ rights activist involved in the city’s Capital Pride events, died Sept. 17 from complications related to stomach cancer. He was 61. 

A statement released by Project ACTION!, a local disability advocacy organization for which Mangrum served for 15 years as co-president, says he worked for more than 20 years for the D.C.-based Maurice Electric Supply company before retiring in 2002 and devoting his efforts to disability-related projects and programs.

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Their Own Words: People With Intellectual Disabilities Talk About Rape

His impact lives on:

Sharing from: Joe Shapiro: 

When the language officially changed and "intellectual disability" replaced "mental retardation", L. Thomas Mangrum (below, right) told me for an NPR story he sure didn't like the old language but he wasn't a fan of the new one, either. "When you talk about intellectual disabilities, that makes you sound like you're dumb, you know, to say that." I included the D.C. self-advocate in the last story of my series on the epidemic of sexual assault of people with intellectual disabilities. He started to cry. Not when talking about the assault, but about not being believed. "They think if you've got a disability, that means you lie, that you can't really tell the truth or you don't know what the truth is." I'm sad to learn of Thomas's death at age 61. Hear his powerful voice:

To read more on this story, click here: In Their Own Words: People With Intellectual Disabilities Talk About Rape

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