In the early morning of Wednesday, July 5, 1978, protesters waited for an RTD bus. It rolled up to a stop at Broadway and Colfax avenues, one of the busiest intersections in the state. Within seconds, it was swarmed as people in wheelchairs blocked the front and back.
The group, then called Atlantis, had been talking to RTD for more than a year trying to get wheelchair lifts on all buses. A new fleet had just been released but none were accessible. People were angry.
Another bus pulled behind the first. Protesters collapsed on that one, too, locking both in place. Traffic stalled for miles. Police of increasing rank would come, demanding the group dispersed. But the protesters — known as the Gang of Nineteen – didn’t budge for two days. Not until RTD agreed to add lifts. They were the first public transit agency in the nation to do so.