Paul K. Longmore, Professor of History and founding Director of the San Francisco State University Institute on Disability, was one of the first historians to study the social history and experience of people with disabilities. A respected scholar and author of numerous publications on the disability rights movement and disability history, Longmore delivered keynote addresses and presentations at conferences across the country and mentored academics, activists, and artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. He was a founder of the Disability History Association, the H-Disability listserv and the American Historical Association's Taskforce on Disability. As Director of the SFSU Institute on Disability he won major federal research grants to develop disability studies curricula, to sponsor conferences and symposia, and to establish a certificate program in Independent Living services.

Paul Kenneth Longmore was born July 10, 1946 in Mount Holly, New Jersey. He contracted poliomyelitis in 1953 when he was seven years old, and contended with the resulting physical complications throughout his life. The virus severely curved his spine and left him without the use of his hands and arms, and as he grew older he increasingly required the use of a ventilator to help him breathe.

Longmore attended elementary, junior high, and high schools in Los Angeles, CA, and in Portland, OR, and graduated from Fremont High School in California in 1964. He went on to earn a BA and MA in History from Occidental College and a PhD from Claremont Graduate School. Longmore fought to receive the support and funding he needed from the California State Department of Rehabilitation for assistive services to complete his studies and to prepare himself for an academic career. He completed his dissertation on George Washington and earned his doctorate in U.S. History in 1984, and subsequently obtained a teaching position at the University of Southern California, where he developed and administered USC’s Program in Disability and Society.

In 1988 Longmore published his first book, The Invention of George Washington, which received critical acclaim for its analysis of Washington as a political figure and public actor. Longmore’s modestly increased income from book royalties made him ineligible for continuing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, which he depended on to pay for essential assistive services and for the rental of his ventilator. In protest, he burned a copy of his book on the steps of the federal building in Los Angeles in 1988 to challenge government policies that prevented people with disabilities from earning a living. As a result of Longmore’s activism, Congress amended the Social Security Act to recognize book royalties as “earned income” and to allow authors with disabilities to remain eligible for SSI benefits. The amendment is known as the Longmore Amendment.

In 1990 Longmore received an Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities to teach as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. He joined the faculty at San Francisco State University two years later and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1995, becoming a Full Professor in 1998. Longmore founded the SFSU Institute on Disability in 1996 and directed major grant-funded projects including the 2000 NEH Summer Institute (with Professor Rosemarie Garland-Thomson) and the Certificate in Independent Living Services program (with Professor Alice Nemon).

Longmore also authored dozens of articles on U.S. history and disability studies which appeared in national newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and reference books. He co-edited the textbook The New Disability History: American Perspectives with Lauri Umansky in 2001, and published an anthology of his writings titled Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability in 2003. His substantial research on telethons and models of charity was in progress at the time of his death, and his manuscript is being prepared for publication (2013). Longmore was awarded numerous fellowships and individual grants to support his research. He received many professional honors, including the 2005 Henry B. Betts Award from the American Association of Persons with Disabilities and the 2006 California State University Wang Family Excellence Award, which recognized his exemplary work in the field of disability studies and as a professor and mentor.

Sources:

“About Paul K. Longmore.” Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, San Francisco State University. Accessed September 4, 2013. http://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/pages/about-paul-longmore

Longmore, Paul K. “Curriculum Vita.” Woodrow Wilson High School Alumni Association. Accessed September 4, 2013. http://www.wilsonalumni.com/In_Memory/Paul_Longmore_CV.pdf

“Mischievous Entanglements: The Embodied Histories of Paul K. Longmore—Scholar, Teacher, Activist.” Panel presentation, April 12, 2013. Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, San Francisco State University. Accessed August 3, 2013. http://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/pages/641

Nelson, Valerie J. “Longmore Dies at 64; Leading Disability Scholar and Activist.” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2010. Accessed September 4, 2013. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/15/local/la-me-paul-longmore-20100816

Richards, Penny L. "In Memoriam: Paul Kenneth Longmore." Perspectives on History, American Historical Association, May 2011. Accessed September 9, 2013. http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2011/1105/1105mem4.cfm