The True Story Behind Being Heumann

Califano continued to ignore Heumann’s calls, but on April 28, 1977, he signed the regulations. Heumann and her fellow activists were victorious. There is some confusion over how many days the sit-in lasted. Many articles cite it 24 or 25 days, though Being Heumann claims 26 days. Any of these numbers would still make it the longest sit-in in US history.

Instead of going back to San Francisco to celebrate their hard-won victory, Judy decided to stay in D.C. to ensure that 504 would finally become law. The decision speaks to her character. “For Judy, it was all about the cause. She’d been put off so many times and told, ‘Oh, something will happen tomorrow. It’ll happen. It’ll happen.’ She never took people at their word until it was concrete,” says Joiner.

However, the decision threw Heder a challenge. “I always pictured the end of the movie being Judy rolling out of the building with everybody celebrating. When she told me she didn’t come back from D.C., I was like, ‘Well, I don’t have an end to my movie.’” But Heder eventually realized it was “the biggest character reveal I could ask for. The fact that the moment she won, was right on to the next thing that had to be accomplished. She could see the possibility for the ADA. It was this laser focus of this woman and her relentlessness that unlocked this character for me.”