RTD board renames Civic Center Station after disability activist — and weighs a fare increase for paratransit

The RTD Board of Directors unanimously voted on Tuesday to rename Civic Center Station after a local disability rights hero — at the same time as activists protested the agency over proposed changes to a popular paratransit program.

The busy transit hub will become the Wade Blank Civic Center Station, named after the late Rev. Wade Blank, who was an important figure in the U.S. disability rights movement.

He co-founded Atlantis Community and led a group of activists known as “The Gang of 19.” In July 1978, those 19 disability activists brought downtown Denver traffic to a standstill by using their bodies to block two city buses for roughly 24 hours. They demanded accessible transit as they chanted: “We will ride.”

Blank was also involved with other key disability rights demonstrations,