LCCR Honors Civil Rights Champions: Ginny Thornburgh
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 4/12/2005
This article is the second in a series about 2005's Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award honorees. The next installment will feature Senator Tom Daschle.For many people with disabilities, places of worship are not as accessible or welcoming as they could be. For years, Ginny Thornburgh has worked to change this situation and make congregations from every faith more inclusive.
Thornburgh, who will be honored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) at this year's Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner on May 4, 2005, founded and directs the Religion and Disability Program of the National Organization on Disability (NOD).
The Civil Rights Award honors the legacy of former United States vice president, senator, and civil rights pioneer Hubert H. Humphrey, whose years of public service, leadership, and dedication to equal opportunity changed the face of America.
The Religion and Disability Program works with local congregations, national faith groups, and seminaries to remove barriers of architecture, communications, and attitudes that prevent people with disabilities from full and active religious participation.
Thornburgh travels around the country, visiting congregations and suggesting simple changes that would make them more accessible to individuals with disabilities.
In 1998, NOD launched the Accessible Congregations Campaign, with an initial goal of enrolling 2,000 congregations of all faiths that commit to removing their barriers and welcoming people with all types of disabilities. That goal was achieved on May 3, 2001 when the name of the 2,000th congregation was announced at a Washington, DC press conference.
Thornburgh and her husband, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, are the parents of a son with developmental disabilities. Their son, who now lives and works in Harrisburg, PA, has served as an inspiration for their efforts to maximize opportunities for persons with disabilities in America's communities, workplaces, schools and congregations.
In 1992, both Thornburghs were featured speakers at the Vatican Conference on Disability and at the Eastern European Conference on Disabilities, held in Prague.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Award is considered to be the civil rights community's highest honor. The more than 180 national organizations that make up LCCR represent people of color, women, children, older Americans, people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, labor unions, major religious groups, and civil liberties and human rights groups.
