Frieda Zames, Disabled in Action, Dies

By Mitchell Cohen, for the No Spray Coalition

We...mourn the loss of another stalwart activist involved with fighting against pesticides, as well as many other issues -- Frieda Zames, founder of Disabled in Action.
Frieda had recently been having breathing problems, and reportedly passed away in her sleep.
Frieda and her sister Doris Fleischer, co-wrote the only book available, surveying the whole history of the disabled civil rights movement. "FROM CHARITY TO CONFRONTATION, A HISTORY OF THE DISABLED RIGHTS MOVEMENT" from Temple University Press.
Frieda had to sue the New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT in Newark, for gender discrimination in the 60's, to win her full professorship and tenure in mathematics. A polio survivor, she had been President and Vice Presdent of Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, many times over the past three decades.
Frieda (and Bryna Eil) also brought Disabled in Action as a co-plaintiff
with the No Spray Coalition into the lawsuit against NYC to stop pesticide spraying, which she argued was especially detrimental to immune compromised people and those in wheelchairs. She told me (Mitchel) how the wheels of the chairs kick up the pesticides into the faces and lungs.
I saw Frieda at every protest and political activity I attended. She was a valiant beacon here in NYC ... To say that "she will be missed" is an understatement without parallel.

(photo: Phil Bennett)