Lois Curtis

Lois Jeanette Curtis (14 July 1967 – 3 November 2022) was an American artist and the lead plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court case that became known as the Olmstead Decision in which the court held that the unjustified segregation of people with disabilities was discriminatory, and a breach of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Early life Curtis was born on July 14, 1967, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother was Mae (née Traylor) Curtis Keith, and worked as a housekeeper; her father was Melvin Lewis Curtis, who worked as a truck driver. As such, she often walked away from school resulting in her being incarcerated in jails and psychiatric hospitals, including as a temporary inpatient at the child and adolescent mental health unit of Georgia Regional Hospital. Curtis was the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court of the United States case of Olmstead v. L.C. On June 22, 1999, the court held that the unjustified segregation of people with disabilities was an act of discrimination, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. On June 20, 2011, Curtis met Barack Obama at the White House and gave him one of her paintings.