“The National Black Disability Coalition (NBDC) is a response to the need for Blacks with Disabilities in America to organize around issues of mutual concern and use our collective strength to address disability issues with an emphasis on people who live in poverty.”

 Their goals are to:

To promote UNITY among Black people with disabilities, their families and communities

To advance EQUITY within the disability movement and communities

To foster OPPORTUNITY for Black people with disabilities

The NBDC believes that Black people with disabilities must unite to obtain and secure the rights and privileges of full participation in their communities.  Using strategies from the civil rights movement, NBDC seeks to achieve collective power and inclusion for Black people with disabilities within their families, faith organizations and the greater disability community.

Reverend Calvin Peterson is the Chair for the National Black Disability Coalition.  He has been a spiritual and a social activist for people with disabilities living in poverty throughout his professional career.  Rev. Peterson is a licensed and ordained minister in the AME church and a lectual at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta Georgia. 

In 1970 Rev. Peterson founded Disabled in Action, a nonprofit organization that addresses issues of disparities of people with disabilities living in poverty.  Rev. Peterson was the first Black person with a disability appointed to the Atlanta Disabled Task Force and the first Black person with a disability to run for the Public Service Commission in Georgia.  He was also appointed to the Georgia Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities.

Rev. Peterson is the author of Nothing is Impossible an autobiography.

The NBDC actively promotes the following education & employment opportunities:

Clemson University’s “Call Me Mister” Program for African-American males.

Development Fund for Black students in Science and Technology

HBCU Minority Student Scholarships

Jacki Tuckfiled Memorial Fund

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) for Outstanding Black American Students

United Negro College Fund (College Scholarships)

Gates Millennium Scholarships in Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Education or Library Science for Entering First-Year College Students

U.S. National Highway Institute

U.S. House of Representatives Page Program – pages have been serving the House of Representatives for nearly two hundred years. Working as a team, Pages assist Members with their legislative duties, deliver correspondence and small packages within the congressional complex, answer phones in the Member cloakrooms, and prepare the House Floor for sessions.

Gallaudet University Masters’ Degree – the graduates of this program will learn to collaborate with a variety of groups that want to include people with disabilities in their development projects and programs. The degree draws on theories and material from disability studies, international relations, special education, research and evaluation, and international development. Students study significant topics in international relations that affect the economic and social development of countries worldwide.

For more information about NBDC, visit http://www.blackdisability.org.  Also, attend The Black Disability Interfaith Conference on October 20-21at The Interdenominational Theological Center at 700 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Atlanta, Georgia, 30314