A Backyard That Changed the World

In the summer of 1962, Eunice Kennedy Shriver opened the gates of her backyard in Potomac, Maryland, and invited children with intellectual disabilities to swim, run, and play. It was a radical act. In an era when families routinely institutionalized children who were different, Shriver — whose own sister Rosemary had been locked away after a failed lobotomy — refused to accept that some people were less worthy of joy.…