The Tornado: Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph
June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994
Photo source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was born June 23rd 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennesse. During her childhood, she had infantile paralysis which caused her to lose strength in her left leg. She relied on a leg brace for seven years of her life.

Due to racism in medical institutions, her family sought medical care from a black medical institution which was approximately 50 miles away from their home. Her treatment required bi-weekly appointments, leg massages from family, and use of an orthopedic shoe. The bi-weekly appointments required her mother, Blanche Rudolph, to rely on buses for transportation. This was during the 1940s, prior to bus desegregation.

Familial support was just as vital for Rudolph’s recovery as the medical care. This care and support not only centered her medical treatment, but her education as well. Conventional schooling was not accessible to Rudolph in her earlier years, so homeschooling served as a solution.

Her entrance in to conventional schooling, subsequently Burt High School, is when she had the opportunity to pursue track and field. Rudolph is most famously known securring three gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter dash, as well as teh 4×1 relay during the 1960s Olympics. It’s important to contextualize her wins as they occurred during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. She, as a black woman who has been diagnoised and treated for multiple illnesses, became an international legacy during a time in which black people were pushing to dismantle segregation. The same segregation laws responisble for the inaccessibilty of the medical care that Rudolph needed during her childhood.

Rudolph’s story is not about someone who ‘overcame her disability’ and succeeded ‘despite’ her disability, this is a story of someone who overcame society’s ableism, and medical apartheid. She overcame systemic racism and ableism with the support of family and community.

Receipts aka Sources

https://youtu.be/RLmn7MsDhHU

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Rudolph

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/wilma-rudolph

https://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00016444.html