The Braille
Monitor
Vol. 36, No. 4 April
1993
Barbara Pierce, Editor
Published in inkprint, in Braille,
on cassette and
the World Wide Web and FTP on the Internet
The National Federation of the Blind
Marc Maurer, President
National Office
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Baltimore, Maryland 21230
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National Federation of the Blind
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THE
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF
THE BLIND IS NOT
AN ORGANIZATION
SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT
IS THE BLIND SPEAKING
FOR THEMSELVES
ISSN 0006-8829
Contents
Vol. 36, No. 4 April 1993
NEW EDITOR
FOR THE MONITOR
by Kenneth Jernigan
CONCERNING
HISTORY AND THE BRAILLE MONITOR
by Kenneth Jernigan
WHO ARE THE BLIND WHO LEAD THE BLIND
BABY-SITTING
by Barbara Walker
CONVENTION
UPDATE
by Kenneth Jernigan
Copyright National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1993[LEAD PHOTO/CAPTION: Kenneth Jernigan and Barbara Pierce stand in the recording studio at the National Center for the Blind, where the BRAILLE MONITOR is recorded each month. They are holding the print and Braille editions of the magazine.]
by Kenneth Jernigan
The lead article in the December, 1988, Braille Monitor was entitled "Barbara Pierce Joins Monitor Staff." Now, Mrs. Pierce moves from the position of Associate Editor to that of Editor. Some of the things I said in the 1988 article are appropriate to repeat, so this article and that one will have a good deal of overlap.
The Braille Monitor has been in existence for more than thirty-five years. It started, to be exact, in 1957. But if you take into account the All Story Magazine (which you really have to), the history stretches far back beyond that.
The All Story was around when I was a boy at the Tennessee School for the Blind, but at that time it was straight fiction. Somewhere along the line (I'm not sure just when) Dr. Newel Perry of California began writing a "legislative supplement." But as sometimes happens when things compete with the Federation, the supplement grew and the stories diminished so that by and by the name All Story wasn't appropriate. The transition occurred in the mid-fifties, and by 1957 the All Story was gone and the Monitor was in place.
In its thirty-six-year history the Monitor has had quite a variety of geographic locations and editorial configurations. It was edited in Wisconsin, in California, in Iowa, and in the District of Columbia; and of course it is now edited in Baltimore. During one period Dr. tenBroek was the editor. For a four-month hitch in 1960 I was editor. For quite some time Mrs. tenBroek did some of the editing and all of the layout and management. And there have been others--Dr. Floyd Matson, who is now a professor at the University of Hawaii; George Card, who fell by the wayside in the internal struggles of thirty-five years ago; and Perry Sundquist.
At the time we moved our headquarters to Baltimore in 1978, Don McConnell was editing the Monitor. He was located in the Washington office and was doing an excellent job. However, he left Federation employment just before the beginning of 1979 to accept a business opportunity, and I filled in as editor for a few months until we could find somebody else. That few months has now stretched to more than fourteen years, and it is only now that an appropriate successor has been found. Editing the Monitor has been demanding, time-consuming, burdensome, and wonderfully stimulating and rewarding. It has been just plain fun--with, of course, a dollop of work and a modicum of grief thrown in.
But, as I said in the December, 1988, issue, fun or not, we have had so much organizational growth that something has to give. The dynamics of the Federation make it necessary. I have been looking for a long time (more than fourteen years, to be precise) for a new editor--and I think there is no question that Barbara meets the specifications. Beginning with next month's issue, she becomes Editor, and I will revert to my former relationship with the magazine--contributor, advisor, critic, and whatever else President Maurer requests.
Barbara Pierce is, of course, no stranger to Federationists or readers of this publication. She is the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio and a long-time leader at the national level. She has been Associate Editor of the Monitor for more than four years, directs our national public relations campaign, and participates prominently in National Convention activities. She is as well versed in Federation philosophy and principles as any of us and will, I think, do an excellent job as Editor. I suppose I don't have to say that, for if I hadn't believed it, I wouldn't have asked her to take the position.
Barbara has an office in her home in Oberlin, Ohio, and makes frequent trips to the National Center for the Blind here in Baltimore. This is the pattern we have established during her time as Associate Editor, and I don't see any reason to change it. In fact, there has been a gradual transition of responsibilities during the past two or three years. Barbara has assumed an ever-increasing share of the work of editing so that the present announcement simply confirms what has already largely happened.
Let me be specific about some of the details of the situation. One of the reasons for formalizing Barbara's position as Editor is to avoid confusion. For many years I have largely written and certainly have read every word we have published in the Monitor. That can no longer be taken for granted. In the future I will work with Barbara and will review some of the articles, but many of them will first come to my attention (just as with you) when I get the finished product. In one sense we now begin a new phase of the Monitor's life, but in another we simply continue what we have had from the beginning.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Floyd Matson, a one-time Editor of the BRAILLE MONITOR.]
[PHOTO: Group portrait of 1971 NFB Executive Committee. CAPTION: Perry Sundquist edited the MONITOR for a number of years. Pictured here with the 1971 Executive Committee of the National Federation of the Blind, he is standing at the far left.]
[PHOTO: Mrs. tenBroek at microphone. CAPTION: For many years Mrs. tenBroek ran the Federation's Berkeley office, maintained the MONITOR mailing list, and did editing and layout work for the magazine.]
[PHOTO: Kenneth Jernigan seated at his desk. CAPTION: Kenneth Jernigan, pictured here in his office, has edited the BRAILLE MONITOR longer than anyone else.]
CONCERNING HISTORY AND THE BRAILLE MONITOR
by Kenneth Jernigan
If we are to deal successfully with the present and the future, we must understand the past. This is true of nations and organizations, and it is also true of the Braille Monitor. So let me talk about history.
Originally, as many of you know, the Monitor was not the Monitor. It was the All Story Braille Magazine, and merely carried what was called a "Legislative Supplement from the National Federation of the Blind." For much of its existence the All Story was published bi-monthly, and only in Braille. It was not produced by the National Federation of the Blind but by the American Brotherhood for the Blind.
The earliest issue of the All Story that I have in my possession is the one for March, 1949. Until a few years ago, the earliest issue we had here at NFB headquarters was February- March, 1955. Then we found one copy each of March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October of 1949. The title All Story Magazine was apt and descriptive. For example, here is the contents page from the March, 1949, issue:
Married This Morning
by Irene Kittle Camp
(reprinted from Good Housekeeping magazine)
The Storm
by Laurence Critchell
(reprinted from Collier's)
Star Boarder
by Libbie Block
(reprinted from McCall's)
Legislation for the Blind
by Dr. Newel Perry
I don't know when the American Brotherhood for the Blind started publishing the All Story, but I remember reading it when I was a boy at the Tennessee School for the Blind in the late 1930's. In view of the fact that the 1949 issue is Volume XVII, Number 11, we can make a calculated guess that the first issue was published in 1932 if we assume that every volume represents a year. In the beginning the magazine didn't have the Federation's legislative supplement, and I am not sure when the feature was added.
The February-March, 1955, issue announced a feature that more recent readers of the Monitor may recognize. There were only three items: "Editor's Note," "Who Are The Blind Who Lead The Blind" (special feature), and "Legislation for the Blind" by Dr. Newel Perry.
In 1956, rather than carrying just a legislative supplement, the magazine began to publish general information of interest to the blind. With the May, 1957, issue the All Story "resumed" a monthly publication schedule. We have no record of the publication schedule between October, 1949, and February-March, 1955. Finding the note in the May, 1957, issue regarding the change from bi-monthly to monthly probably explains why we have both an April-May and a May issue for that year. Later in 1957 both the emphasis and the name of the magazine changed. The July issue carried the following announcement:
All Story Gets a New Name
Beginning with the next monthly issue, the name of this magazine will be changed to the Braille Monitor. We have been fortunate to be able to return to a monthly issue. This is made possible by a subvention from the National Federation of the Blind. The Federation News Section has become increasingly popular. Many of our readers have written to request that more space be devoted to this feature. Program and other developments concerning the blind--many of which are of the utmost importance to the blind men and women of this country--have been emerging in profusion. Even with the return to the monthly issue, a major fraction of the space of this magazine must be devoted to the coverage of these developments if our people are to continue to be informed.
It therefore seems only appropriate that we should now change the name of the magazine to one that does not state or imply that all of the contents are stories. Stories will continue to be republished to the extent that space is available.
According to the dictionary a "monitor" is a person who "advises, warns, or cautions." A Braille monitor is one who carries on this function for the blind, and this is the pledge of the editors of this magazine.
____________________
That is what the July, 1957, All Story said, and the following month the magazine carried for the first time the title Braille Monitor. While previously the bulk of material had been stories plus a Federation news supplement, the balance now reversed. The newly titled magazine was primarily Federation news and only carried stories as space permitted, which it usually didn't. In fact, the first issue of the Monitor (August, 1957) carried no stories at all.
Although I was living in California in the mid-fifties and participated in policy decisions, my memory of the exact month when we began to publish the print edition of the magazine understandably needed refreshing. My original research indicated that the first print edition was produced in July of 1957. However, it now appears that the first print edition was produced and distributed in January of 1958. An announcement to that effect appeared in both the Braille and print editions for that month (although in slightly different form for each). Here is what the print edition said:
It has at last become possible to issue an ink- print edition of the Braille Monitor. The demand for such a publication has become overwhelming. For the time being, the publication of the print edition will be experimental. Members of the NFB who are now on the mailing list will automatically receive the print edition. Other friends of the Federation and interested persons may have their names placed on the mailing list by writing to NFB headquarters: 2652 Shasta Road, Berkeley 8, California.
The costs of offsetting and mailing are high. These costs should be met by the readers. The normal way of doing this would be to charge for subscriptions. On the other hand, all Federation members and friends who do not read Braille and who can read or have read the ink-print edition should have an opportunity to gain firsthand acquaintance with Federation news. All readers who wish to do so should send $3 to Federation headquarters to help meet expenses. If not enough people do so, we may have to discontinue the print edition.
____________________
That is what we said in January, 1958--and one of the first things that comes to mind is the change in prices between then and now. As some of you know, there is a bound volume of the print Monitors for July through December of 1957, but these print copies were not done until much later. As I remember it, they were transcribed from Braille around 1970 when we first issued bound volumes of the print edition.
From January of 1958 through December of 1960, the Monitor appeared monthly in both Braille and print. During this time the print edition was published by the Federation, but until January of 1960 (at which time the Federation began doing it) the Braille edition was produced by the American Brotherhood for the Blind. A special issue of the Monitor was published in the spring of 1959. In Braille it was called "A Supplement to the April Issue," and in print it was called "Special Issue: May, 1959." Here is what Dr. tenBroek said as an introduction:
This special edition of the Monitor, devoted to a full account of the internal warfare which threatens to destroy the National Federation of the Blind, is being issued at Federation expense. In the past we have not hesitated to spend Federation funds to fight the external enemies of the organized blind. We should not now hesitate to use Federation money to preserve the organization against an attack from within more serious than any we have yet confronted.
____________________
That is what Dr. tenBroek said, and I remember those days with particular clarity. The organization was very nearly destroyed in the struggle to preserve it from its internal opponents. It was a time of soul-searching--a time when each of us had to determine precisely what kind of movement we wanted and how we thought it should function. Because of the internal warfare and the disruption created by the minority faction, the Monitor was forced to cease publication at the end of 1960. It did not appear again until the summer of 1964. Meanwhile, the Blind American (produced by the American Brotherhood for the Blind) started monthly publication in Braille in May of 1961. The inaugural print edition of the Blind American brought together in a single volume the May, June, July, and August issues, which had been produced separately in Braille. From September of 1961 through January of 1964 the Blind American appeared monthly in both Braille and print. It was not issued in February or March of that year. The April, 1964, Blind American announced itself as a quarterly but was never published again. Instead, the Braille Monitor resumed publication on a monthly basis in both Braille and print in August, 1964, and has been produced continuously by the Federation ever since. With our present strength and prospects, I don't foresee a time when the schedule will again be interrupted or curtailed.
I say this even though there have been occasional glitches, some rather sizable. In late 1976 our fund-raising was in trouble, and we were considering how to manage and where to cut. Details were given in the February, 1977, Monitor. The first two articles talked about the interruption of our mail campaigns, and the third was a special letter from me to the readers of the Braille edition. In the second article I said in part:
I will immediately do everything that I can to find new sources of income and to cut expenditures. Cuts will not be easy, and they will not be pleasant; but they must be made.
I am writing a special letter to the readers of the Braille edition of the Monitor to ask that as many as possible shift to talking book. It costs three or four times as much to send the magazine in Braille as on record. We will try to continue to make the Braille issue available to deaf-blind readers and to others who have a justifiable reason for wanting it. In the circumstances mere personal preference for Braille will not be enough.
We will skip the April, 1977, issue of the Monitor entirely--all formats: Braille, print, and talking book. This will save money, and it will give us time to see what response we get. Whether we will have to begin publishing the Monitor on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis will be a matter for future determination.
____________________
This is what I said in February of 1977, and it explains why we had a March-April issue that year, the first interruption of our monthly schedule in twelve years. The response from Monitor readers was immediate and gratifying. Contributions increased, and in less than two years we resumed our mail campaigns.
We continued to publish the Monitor and never strictly enforced the limitation on Braille, but it was not a happy situation. It was not until 1985 that we could fully return to normal. In the February issue for that year I made the announcement, saying in part:
Several years ago we found it necessary to limit the number of Braille copies of the Monitor produced and circulated each month. This was done in the interest of economy. We are now in a position to revert to our former practice of providing Braille copies of the Monitor to those who want them....
There are definite advantages to having the magazine in Braille for those who want and can use that medium. Moreover, we want to do all that we can to encourage the use and availability of Braille. This is why we helped establish the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB).
The production of the Monitor takes a sizable chunk of our resources, but it is one of the best expenditures we make. Most people (friend and foe alike) recognize the fact that the Monitor is the most influential publication in the affairs of the blind today. It informs, encourages, synthesizes, and calls to action.
The Monitor is (and will continue to be) an indispensable element in our march to freedom. Let us see that it is widely distributed, read with care, and thoroughly discussed and understood. The words which appear at the beginning of the Monitor each month are not simply a slogan. They are a reminder and a reaffirmation: "The National Federation of the Blind is not an organization speaking for the blind--it is the blind speaking for themselves."
____________________
The first recorded edition of the Braille Monitor was not, as many believe, produced in the late '60's. It was brought out in the '50's. As has already been noted, the April-May, 1957, issue marked a definite change in the magazine's history. One of those changes was the inauguration of the Monitor on tape.
From April-May, 1957, through March, 1958, I did the reading. After I moved to Iowa to become director of the state commission for the blind (April, 1958) the Monitor was first recorded by the women of the Jewish Temple Sisterhood and then (sometime during the fall of that year) by the inmates of the state penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa. One of the women from the Jewish Temple Sisterhood who did the reading was Dorothy Kirsner, the chairman of the Iowa Commission for the Blind. The recorded Monitor continued through December of 1960, at which time it was stopped, as were the Braille and print editions. I had forgotten some of the details and called them to mind only after listening to selections from some of those early tapes.
Everything (the recording, the duplicating, and the finished product) was done on open reel tape. As I remember it, we did not have duplicators but simply produced each tape from reel to reel at standard speed. It was a slow process, but the labor pool was sizable with a lot of surplus time. We had established a Braille and recording project at the state prison, and the production of the recorded Monitor was one of the results.
As to the duplication during 1957 and early '58 when I was still in California, there is some indication that at least part of it was done by inmates at San Quentin. But a major portion of it was done by one of the unsung heroes of our movement, a man named Victor Torey. Most Federationists have never heard of Victor Torey, but he deserves remembering. He was sighted and, to the best of my knowledge, had no blind family members. Nevertheless, he moved from Phoenix, Arizona, to the San Francisco Bay Area for the sole purpose of volunteering his time to do recording for us. Day after day, hour after hour he duplicated open reel tapes by patching two recorders together, and he did it without one penny of compensation. It was Victor Torey who produced the hundreds of open reel tapes that we distributed after the New Orleans convention in 1957.
The first professionally recorded edition of the Braille Monitor was produced in July of 1968. As a number of you will remember, it was a memorial issue honoring Dr. Jacobus tenBroek-- our founder, first president, and long-time leader. Dr. tenBroek died March 27, 1968, and the recordings entitled "Jacobus tenBroek: The Man and the Movement" were ready in time for the 1968 national convention in Des Moines. What many Federationists do not know is that these recordings were approaching completion at the time of Dr. tenBroek's death and that I finished the final portion of the work only an hour or so after I was told that he had died.
The early recorded issues of the Monitor were produced at the American Printing House for the Blind on ten-inch 16-2/3 hard discs. Three changes occurred with the December, 1970, issue. Larry McKeever was the reader for the first time; the records changed from ten to twelve inches in diameter; and we moved production from the American Printing House for the Blind to a commercial firm in Arizona.
With the December, 1972, issue we shifted from 16-2/3 rpm to 8-1/3 but continued to use a twelve-inch hard disc. In February of 1974 we switched to nine-inch flexible discs, still recording at 8-1/3 rpm as we do today. With the introduction of flexible discs, we moved back to the American Printing House for the Blind, but we shifted to Eva-Tone the very next month and have stayed there ever since. From March, 1974, through May, 1978, we used eight-inch flexible discs but changed back to nine-inch flexible discs in June of 1978.
In January, 1987, we began issuing the Monitor on four-track 15/16 ips cassettes, but we went back to August of 1985 and put the Monitor on cassette from that date forward. With the February-March, 1988, issue we started recording the Monitor in our own studios at the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore, and Jim Shelby succeeded Larry McKeever as reader. Ronald B. Meyer, the present reader, began in June of 1989. The cassette issue was first duplicated by a commercial firm in Washington, D.C., but is now produced at the American Printing House for the Blind.
When we started recording the Monitor in 1968, we were producing only a little over a thousand copies. Today the number is more than 15,000 per month. Because of the cost differential, almost half of the Federationists who read the Monitor in recorded form still use flexible discs, but the shift from disc to cassette continues at an accelerating pace. The time may come in the not-too-distant future when we move entirely from disc to cassette--but not yet. Today (with Braille, print, disc, and cassette editions) we are producing more than 30,000 copies of the Monitor each month--not to mention what we distribute through the NFB's computer bulletin board.
A small number of Braille, disc, and print back issues are available from January, 1971, to present--but as already noted, only issues from August, 1985, to present are available on cassette. While we have a few copies of older issues (that is, prior to January, 1971), we would be glad to have more if any of you are willing to dispose of them. Bound yearly volumes of the Monitor are available in print. The first of these covers July through December of 1957 and, as already mentioned, was transcribed from Braille. It and the volumes from 1958 through 1974 are hardbound. The volumes from 1975 to present are softbound. As long as they last, bound copies of the Monitor may be purchased by contacting the Materials Center at the National Center for the Blind.
To make research practical, we produce a Monitor index. While the index is published only in print, the entries refer both to Braille and print page numbers. The first volume, covering 1957-1973, is hardbound in three parts. Years 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977 are published in separate volumes. The index for 1978 through 1984 is in one volume. Everything after 1975 is softbound. Everything before that date is hardbound. We are in the process of developing and refining a new computerized Monitor index. There are gaps in some of the years during the 1980's, but we hope to be up-to-date in the not-too-distant future.
There is a final tidbit of information I want to give you. The column titled "Monitor Miniatures" was originally called "Here and There." From 1961 through mid-1964 (when the Monitor was in eclipse and the Blind American was being published) the column was called "Brothers and Others." When we resumed publication of the Monitor in 1964, we adopted the name "Monitor Miniatures"--and have kept it ever since.
One more thing: The Monitor is a dynamic organism, always changing. With this issue, for instance, we begin tone indexing the cassette edition. We plan to tone index all future recorded issues.
In providing all of these details I realize that I may have given you more information than you want, but at least you now have in one place as much of it as I can remember. The Monitor is our principal means of communication, both internally and externally--and I think it is worthwhile for us to know its history.
From the Editor: Since we are talking about history in this issue, I thought it might be worthwhile to give you a sample of what the Monitor was like thirty-six years ago. The April-May, 1957, issue marked a transition. It overlapped with May--and after that, the magazine was printed on a monthly basis. Of course, it was still called the All Story in April of 1957, but that would change within a few months.
During the '50's the Federation experienced tremendous growth. When I became a national board member in 1952, our total annual budget was around $15,000. Two years later it was ten times that much. This was the result of our mail campaign, which started in late 1952. With money came the ability to do intensive organizing, and this brought new affiliates--nine in one year, 1956. It meant more communications, more plans, and more activities. It meant the coming to vigor of a viable, determined, competently led national organization--an organization not just in name but in fact.
But it also meant something else. The governmental and private agencies doing work with the blind took alarm and became frightened. Before this time, they had virtually had the blindness field to themselves. Now, they saw a new force beginning to build, and they didn't like it.
As the blind organized and joined the Federation, the more repressive agencies tried to stop them. They used intimidation, scare tactics, and whatever else came to hand. Those agencies that welcomed the new trend and wanted to have partnership were in the minority.
As the battle intensified, the National Federation of the Blind decided to ask Congress to enact legislation to protect their right to organize and have a voice in programs affecting them. Companion bills were introduced--in the Senate by John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and in the House by Walter Baring of Nevada. The agencies reacted with fury. There were congressional hearings throughout the country, and there were inevitable reprisals against vulnerable blind persons. The right to organize bills were never passed, but their objectives were achieved, the proof of which is the current size and strength of the National Federation of the Blind.
By the fall of 1957 the battle for the right to organize was fully joined, but in the spring of that year we were still in the preliminary stages. Here is how part of it was reported:
All Story Braille
Magazine
April-May, 1957
Secretary Folsom Rebukes Agency Attack On Blind Organization
The North Carolina Federation of the Blind has recently announced publicly its success in securing from Secretary Marion Folsom of the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare a ruling that the release of confidential information from the files of the North Carolina Commission for the Blind was "not proper." At the same time, Secretary Folsom stated that special action had been taken by his department to require specific protections to guard against misuse of confidential information. The action taken by the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare revealed that a severe rebuke had been administered to the state agency for its improper use of its records. Every blind person in the United States who has ever had any relationship with a state agency serving the blind will applaud this action of the federal department.
The Background Facts are Briefly These:
Early in 1956 two members of the North Carolina Federation approached an attorney in their city to discuss with him the possibility of becoming the legal counsel and representative of the organization. While learning about the composition and program of the organization, the attorney expressed particular interest in improving the state's vending stand system. He later wrote a letter of inquiry about the vending stand program to the chairman of the state Commission for the Blind, who thereupon requested that a reply be made by Mr. H. A. (Pete) Wood, the Commission's executive head.
Mr. Wood called upon the attorney in his office, and after an extended interview left with the attorney a long letter signed by himself attacking the North Carolina Federation of the Blind. Enclosed with the letter was a file of documents purporting to substantiate the attack. The entire file of documents was later given over into the hands of the two blind persons who had originally approached the attorney. To their immense surprise these persons, both of them former clients of the Commission, found among the documents official summaries of the case histories of one of them and of the wife of the other. The case summaries appeared over the official signature of Mrs. Madeline McCrary in her capacity as Chief of Rehabilitation Services for the Commission, and bore a date in December, 1955. They contained detailed information of a highly personal nature about the individuals and their families.
Wood's conduct was immediately reported to both the North Carolina Federation and the National Federation of the Blind. The disclosure was promptly protested by the individuals concerned in letters addressed to Secretary Folsom and both senators from North Carolina, and these were supported by letters from the state and the national organizations. During the succeeding few months a thorough investigation was carried on by the Federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation at the direction of Secretary Folsom. The facts were thoroughly proved that Mr. Wood had used the confidential records of the Commission to further his purpose to discredit the state Federation of the Blind.
In mid-October, Secretary Folsom wrote both North Carolina senators about this use of confidential data and in both letters stated that "its release was not proper" under either the state or the federal regulations. Similar letters were sent to the North Carolina Federation, to the National Federation, and to the individuals. All of these letters stated further:
"In order to prevent such a situation arising again, we have requested and have received written assurance from the Commission to the effect that no confidential information concerning vocational rehabilitation clients will be released except with the client's consent, other than in those situations where the release is clearly authorized by the state agency's regulations, without first obtaining advice from the appropriate state legal official that the disclosure in question would be authorized under the state's regulations, or, where compliance with a federal regulation is in question, from this office....
"We have directed our Regional Representative to work further with the North Carolina Commission for the Blind to assure that its policies concerning the protection of the confidentiality of rehabilitation records and the procedures for carrying out such policies will prevent a recurrence of this type of situation."
This rebuke administered by Secretary Folsom to Mr. Wood has particular significance at this time.
All of us who are working to build strong and effective organizations of the blind devoted to enabling the blind to achieve self-determination, self-help, and freedom from the bonds of patronizing assistance know well that there is an element, in some states a powerful element, among old-style agency workers that is now determined to strike out against self-organization of the blind, and especially to strike out against the National Federation and its affiliated organizations. These agency people are now making a desperate stand to stop the recent swift growth of the National Federation of the Blind. In their eagerness to succeed, they are using every resource that comes to hand.
Funds that have been appropriated or donated by the public to help the blind are now being diverted by these people to fight the blind. Organizations that have been built up over years to disseminate good will toward the blind are now being used by these people to disseminate ill will toward the blind. Agencies that have been supported by the public in the past because they have promoted the education, economic independence, and welfare of the blind are now being used by these people to deny to the blind one of the first fruits of these advantages--self- determination and self-organization.
Obviously this use of these funds and these agencies to fight self-organization of the blind is regrettable and should be ended. It is regrettable because it is threatening to destroy the future usefulness of agencies that in the past have contributed largely to the advancement and welfare of the blind. It should be ended because it constitutes a gross misappropriation of public funds and public welfare services.
The action of Secretary Folsom in rebuking the conduct of H. A. Wood is a timely warning to these people. In this case, Wood was found to be exercising the power inherent in his office to discredit blind persons working for the self-organization of the blind. Whether or not his actions violated the "confidence" of the Commission files was not emphasized by the Secretary. The Secretary did emphatically determine that Mr. Wood's actions in using these files to discredit the movement of the blind toward self-organization was clearly not consistent with his public office, and clearly not proper.
This ruling of the Secretary affords to each agency the occasion to re-evaluate the part it has played in the past, and will play in the future, in the movement toward self-organization and self-determination of the blind. The Secretary's decision that it is not proper for an agency to engage in actions designed to resist self-organization of the blind is a correct decision and a necessary decision. But more than this is needed. Each agency should now seize this occasion to reshape its program to assist, encourage, and provide a maximum of opportunity for the self-organization and self-determination of the blind. The example provided and the principles adopted by one of the established agencies point the way: "... to apply in principle and in programmatic implementation the proposition that this agency is the representative of the visually handicapped, subject to their wishes, needs, and decisions, and committed to their struggle for full opportunity, recognition, and equal treatment, socially and economically."
All Story Braille
Magazine
May, 1957
Agency Attack Upon the Federation
One of the most flagrant attacks yet made by the agencies upon the National Federation of the Blind took place recently in Houston, Texas. The incident also involved a brazen threat to the livelihood of a blind vendor and an obvious effort at intimidation of the blind men and women of Texas.
The attack was contained in a letter by Lon Alsup, Executive Secretary-Director of the Texas State Commission for the Blind, addressed to the president of the Houston chapter of the Texas Federation of the Blind. The letter was read before a Houston chapter meeting on November 2, 1956, which was preparing to act upon recommendations of a special committee appointed to investigate the desirability of affiliation with the NFB. The letter was unsolicited by the chapter and was timed to arrive while the meeting was in progress.
The letter warned the Houston group that "If you want to wreck the work for the blind in this state, then you follow the recommendations as outlined by Mr. Moody, one of our stand operators." Thomas F. Moody, chairman of the investigating committee, was one of five members who submitted a unanimous recommendation for NFB affiliation, along with a strongly favorable report on NFB activities.
The threat to Moody--and to any others who might express similar independence in the future--was contained in Alsup's assertion that "I want everyone to know that if Mr. Moody does not like the way the stand program is being operated in this state, there are thousands of other blind people who would give everything to have the stand which he has and would never gripe because they have to pay a small agency fee."
Alsup was, however, quick to cover his iron hand with a velvet glove by declaring that "Mr. Moody is my friend" and that "This letter is not to be construed by any blind person in this state to mean that this agency would deny any service to any blind person because he belongs to the National Federation for the Blind."
The depth of his friendliness was suggested by Alsup in a statement which bluntly impugned the committee chairman's motives in expressing approval of the NFB: "The only reason that he is vitally interested is for the sole purpose of getting absolute control of the equipment which is in his stand and not have any supervisory assistance from this agency."
A clear indication of what many blind people have long suspected--that some public agencies supposedly concerned with the welfare of the blind spend time and money warring upon the blind and subverting their attempts at organization--was set forth in the Alsup letter:
"Last week in Denver, while attending the National Rehabilitation Association meeting, the Council of Executives of Agencies for the Blind went on record against the practices and policies used by the National Federation, and established a committee within its organization to supply information to any state where there was an attempt to organize the state in behalf of the National Federation for the Blind."
Moreover, according to Alsup, "It was definitely proved at this meeting that the policies used by the National Federation for the Blind had retarded the work of the blind for at least twenty-five years." But the Alsup letter, despite this sweeping denunciation, failed to specify a single instance of such negative policies, or to provide any other documentation of the charges made.
The familiar bogey of "outside interference," with its suggestion of alien and sinister forces at work, was raised by Alsup with the exclamation that "We do not need any national organization to tell Texas how to run its program" and advising Houston members to limit the expression of their discontent to a committee of the state legislature: "... and again I reiterate we do not need people from out of state coming down here and telling us how to run our program."
The Alsup letter throughout referred to the NFB as "the National Federation for the Blind" and repeated in various phraseology the declaration that "In the interest of the blind of this state, I want every member of your organization to know that I do not in any manner endorse the National Federation and its policies."
The Alsup letter constitutes a frontal attack by an agency for the blind upon the right of the blind to organize for purposes of self-improvement and the improvement of programs concerning them. In view of the importance of the Alsup letter it is set forth here in full:
State Commission for the
Blind
Land Office Building
Austin, Texas
Lon Alsup, Executive Secretary-Director
October 26, 1956
Mr. W. T. Keith, Jr., President
Houston Chapter of the
Texas Federation for the Blind
Houston, Texas
Dear Mr. Keith:
Information has recently come to me to the effect that a meeting is to be called by the Houston chapter of the Texas Federation for the Blind for Friday evening, November 2nd, for the purpose of voting on the question as to whether or not the local chapter would affiliate with the National Federation for the Blind.
In the interest of the blind of this state,I want every member of your organization to know that I do not in any manner endorse the National Federation and its policies. Last week in Denver, while attending the National Rehabilitation Association meeting, the Council of Executives of Agencies for the Blind went on record against the practices and policies used by the National Federation, and established a committee within its organization to supply information to any state where there was an attempt to organize the state in behalf of the National Federation for the Blind.
I want everyone to know that I wholeheartedly approve of the action taken by this national organization of executive directors. It was definitely proved at this meeting that the policies used by the National Federation for the Blind had retarded the work of the blind for at least twenty-five years. We do not need any national organization to tell Texas how to run its program. If you want to investigate the work for the blind in this state or have it done, then I suggest that you write to the legislative chairman of the Interim Committee of the State Legislature requesting them to make an investigation of the work for the blind in this state, if in your opinion you think that all programs are not being administered satisfactorily. This legislative committee of the State Legislature has the authority to act on matters of this kind, and again I reiterate, we do not need people from out of state coming down here and telling us how to run our program.
If you want to wreck the work for the blind in this state, then you follow the recommendations as outlined by Mr. Moody, one of our stand operators. I have seen some of the letters which he has written to the various states, and his statement says, "At present the Houston Federation is independent of NFB. We are, however, considering the possibility of affiliation with that organization." Mr. Moody is my friend, but nevertheless, I do not concur in his thinking--and the only reason that he is vitally interested is for the sole purpose of getting absolute control of the equipment which is in his stand, and not have any supervisory assistance from this agency.
Mr. Moody has a right to his opinion, but I want everyone to know that if Mr. Moody does not like the way the stand program is being operated in this state, there are thousands of other blind people who would give everything to have the stand which he has and would never gripe because they have to pay a small agency fee.
This letter is not to be construed by any blind person in this state to mean that this agency would deny any service to any blind person because he belongs to the National Federation for the Blind. We intend to give the service that is needed to any blind person, if he is eligible, but that does not mean that this agency is in favor in any manner of the practices and policies of the National Federation for the Blind, because we are not.
Respectfully submitted,
S. Lon Alsup
Executive Secretary-Director
____________________
That is how we reported what was happening in North Carolina and Texas in 1957, and it was illustrative of what was occurring all over the country. We were engaged in a war for our right to organize and be heard, and the stakes were as high as our independence and self-respect--and ultimately our ability to make a living and stand on our own. It happened thirty-six years ago, and today we live in a different world--but not totally different. Many of the agencies now work with us, and none would dare make such public attacks--but oppression takes many forms. Let us consider our roots; let us be diligent in the present; and let us prepare for the future. It couldn't happen again--or could it?
WHO ARE THE BLIND WHO LEAD THE BLIND
INTRODUCTION
The National Federation of the Blind has become by far the most significant force in the affairs of the blind today, and its actions have had an impact on many other groups and programs. The Federation's President, Marc Maurer, radiates confidence and persuasiveness. He says, "If I can find twenty people who care about a thing, then we can get it done. And if there are two hundred, two thousand, or twenty thousand--well, that's even better." The National Federation of the Blind is a civil rights movement with all that the term implies.
President Maurer says, "You can't expect to obtain freedom by having somebody else hand it to you. You have to do the job yourself. The French could not have won the American Revolution for us. That would merely have shifted the governing authority from one colonial power to another. So, too, we the blind are the only ones who can win freedom for the blind, which is both frightening and reassuring. If we don't get out and do what we must, there is no one to blame but ourselves. We have control of the essential elements."
Although there are in the United States at the present time many organizations and agencies for the blind, there is only one National Federation of the blind. This organization was established in 1940 when the blind of seven states--Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and California--sent delegates to its first convention at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Since that time progress has been rapid and steady. The Federation is recognized by blind men and women throughout the entire country as their primary means of joint expression; and today--with active affiliates in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico--it is the primary voice of the nation's blind.
To explain this spectacular growth, three questions must be asked and answered: (1) What are the conditions in the general environment of the blind which have impelled them to organize? (2) What are the purpose, the belief, and the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind? (3) Who are its leaders, and what are their qualifications to understand and solve the problems of blindness? Even a brief answer to these questions is instructive.
When the Federation came into being in 1940, the outlook for the blind was certainly not bright. The nation's welfare system was so discouraging to individual initiative that those who were forced to accept public assistance had little hope of ever achieving self-support again, and those who sought competitive employment in regular industry or the professions found most of the doors barred against them. The universal good will expressed toward the blind was not the wholesome good will of respect felt toward equals; it was the misguided goodwill of pity felt toward inferiors. In effect the system said to the blind, "Sit on the sidelines of life. This game is not for you. If you have creative talents, we are sorry, but we cannot use them." The Federation came into being to combat these expressions of discrimination and to promote new ways of thought concerning blindness. Although great progress has been made toward the achievement of these goals, much still remains to be done.
The Federation believes that blind people are essentially normal and that blindness in itself is not a mental or psychological handicap. It can be reduced to the level of a mere physical nuisance. Legal, economic, and social discrimination based upon the false assumption that the blind are somehow different from the sighted must be abolished, and equality of opportunity must be made available to blind people. Because of their personal experience with blindness, the blind themselves are best qualified to lead the way in solving their own problems, but the general public should be asked to participate in finding solutions. Upon these fundamentals the National Federation of the Blind predicates its philosophy.
As for the leadership of the organization, all of the officers and members of the Board of Directors are blind, and all give generously of their time and resources in promoting the work of the Federation. The Board consists of seventeen elected members, five of whom are the constitutional officers of the organization. These members of the Board of Directors represent a wide cross section of the blind population of the United States. Their backgrounds are different, and their experiences vary widely; but they are drawn together by the common bond of having met blindness individually and successfully in their own lives and by their united desire to see other blind people have the opportunity to do likewise. A profile of the leadership of the organization shows why it is so effective and demonstrates the progress made by blind people during the past half century--for in the story of the lives of these leaders can be found the greatest testimonial to the soundness of the Federation's philosophy. The cumulative record of their individual achievements is an overwhelming proof, leading to an inescapable conclusion.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Jacobus tenBroek.] [PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Hazel tenBroek.]
DR. JACOBUS tenBROEK
Author, Jurist, Professor, Founder of the National Federation of the Blind
The moving force in the founding of the National Federation of the Blind (and its spiritual and intellectual father) was Jacobus tenBroek. Born in 1911, young tenBroek (the son of a prairie homesteader in Canada) lost the sight of one eye as the result of a bow-and-arrow accident at the age of seven. His remaining eyesight deteriorated until at the age of fourteen he was totally blind. Shortly afterward he and his family traveled to Berkeley so that he could attend the California School for the Blind. Within three years he was an active part of the local organization of the blind.
By 1934 he had joined with Dr. Newel Perry and others to form the California Council of the Blind, which later became the National Federation of the Blind of California. This organization was a prototype for the nationwide federation that tenBroek would form six years later.
Even a cursory glance at his professional career shows the absurdity of the idea that blindness means incapacity. The same year the Federation was founded (1940) Jacobus tenBroek received his doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of California, completed a year as Brandeis Research Fellow at Harvard Law School, and was appointed to the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School.
Two years later he began his teaching career at the University of California at Berkeley, moving steadily up through the ranks to become full professor in 1953 and chairman of the department of speech in 1955. In 1963 he accepted an appointment as professor of political science.
During this period Professor tenBroek published several books and more than fifty articles and monographs in the fields of welfare, government, and law--establishing a reputation as one of the nation's foremost scholars on matters of constitutional law. One of his books, Prejudice, War, and the Constitution, won the Woodrow Wilson Award of the American Political Science Association in 1955 as the best book of the year on government and democracy. Other books are California's Dual System of Family Law (1964), Hope Deferred: Public Welfare and the Blind (1959), The Antislavery Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment (1951)-- revised and republished in 1965 as Equal Under Law, and The Law of the Poor (edited in 1966).
In the course of his academic career Professor tenBroek was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto and was twice the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1947 he earned the degree of S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. In addition, he was awarded honorary degrees by two institutions of higher learning.
Dr. tenBroek's lifelong companion was his devoted wife Hazel. Together they raised three children and worked inseparably on research, writing, and academic and Federation concerns. Mrs. tenBroek still continues as an active member of the organized blind movement.
In 1950 Dr. tenBroek was made a member of the California State Board of Social Welfare by Governor Earl Warren. Later reappointed to the board three times, he was elected its chairman in 1960 and served in that capacity until 1963. The brilliance of Jacobus tenBroek's career led some skeptics to suggest that his achievements were beyond the reach of what they called the "ordinary blind person." What tenBroek recognized in himself was not that he was exceptional, but that he was normal-- that his blindness had nothing to do with whether he could be a successful husband and father, do scholarly research, write a book, make a speech, guide students engaged in social action movements and causes, or otherwise lead a productive life.
In any case, the skeptics' theory has been refuted by the success of the thousands of blind men and women who have put this philosophy of normality to work in their own lives during the past fifty years.
Jacobus tenBroek died of cancer at the age of fifty-six in 1968. His successor, Kenneth Jernigan, in a memorial address, said truly of him: "The relationship of this man to the organized blind movement, which he brought into being in the United States and around the world, was such that it would be equally accurate to say that the man was the embodiment of the movement or that the movement was the expression of the man.
"For tens of thousands of blind Americans over more than a quarter of a century, he was leader, mentor, spokesman, and philosopher. He gave to the organized blind movement the force of his intellect and the shape of his dreams. He made it the symbol of a cause barely imagined before his coming: the cause of self- expression, self-direction, and self-sufficiency on the part of blind people. Step by step, year by year, action by action, he made that cause succeed."
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Kenneth and Mary Ellen Jernigan.]
KENNETH JERNIGAN
Teacher, Writer, Administrator
Kenneth Jernigan has been a leader in the National Federation of the Blind for more than thirty-five years. He was President (with one brief interruption) from 1968 until July of 1986. Although Jernigan is no longer President of the Federation, he continues to be one of its principal leaders. He works closely with the President, and he continues to be loved and respected by tens of thousands--members and non-members of the Federation, both blind and sighted.
Born in 1926, Kenneth Jernigan grew up on a farm in central Tennessee. He received his elementary and secondary education at the school for the blind in Nashville. After high school Jernigan managed a furniture shop in Beech Grove, Tennessee, making all furniture and operating the business.
In the fall of 1945 Jernigan matriculated at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. Active in campus affairs from the outset, he was soon elected to office in his class and to important positions in other student organizations. Jernigan graduated with honors in 1948 with a B.S. degree in social science. In 1949 he received a master's degree in English from Peabody College in Nashville, where he subsequently completed additional graduate study. While at Peabody he was a staff writer for the school newspaper, co-founder of an independent literary magazine, and a member of the Writers Club. In 1949 he received the Captain Charles W. Browne Award, at that time presented annually by the American Foundation for the Blind to the nation's outstanding blind student.
Jernigan then spent four years as a teacher of English at the Tennessee School for the Blind. During this period he became active in the Tennessee Association of the Blind (now the National Federation of the Blind of Tennessee). He was elected to the vice presidency of the organization in 1950 and to the presidency in 1951. In that position he planned the 1952 annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind, which was held in Nashville, and he has been planning national conventions for the Federation ever since. It was in 1952 that Jernigan was first elected to the NFB Board of Directors.
In 1953 he was appointed to the faculty of the California Orientation Center for the Blind in Oakland, where he played a major role in developing the best program of its kind then in existence.
From 1958 until 1978, he served as Director of the Iowa State Commission for the Blind. In this capacity he was responsible for administering state programs of rehabilitation, home teaching, home industries, an orientation and adjustment center, and library services for the blind and physically handicapped. The improvements made in services to the blind of Iowa under the Jernigan administration have never before or since been equaled anywhere in the country.
In 1960 the Federation presented Jernigan with its Newel Perry Award for outstanding accomplishment in services for the blind. In 1968 Jernigan was given a Special Citation by the President of the United States. Harold Russell, the chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, came to Des Moines to present the award. He said: "If a person must be blind, it is better to be blind in Iowa than anywhere else in the nation or in the world. This statement," the citation went on to say, "sums up the story of the Iowa Commission for the Blind during the Jernigan years and more pertinently of its Director, Kenneth Jernigan. That narrative is much more than a success story. It is the story of high aspiration magnificently accomplished--of an impossible dream become reality."
Jernigan has received too many honors and awards to enumerate individually, including honorary doctorates from three institutions of higher education. He has also been asked to serve as a special consultant to or member of numerous boards and advisory bodies. The most notable among these are: member of the National Advisory Committee on Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (appointed by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare), special consultant on Services for the Blind (appointed by the Federal Commissioner of Rehabilitation), advisor on museum programs for blind visitors to the Smithsonian Institution, and special advisor to the White House Conference on Library and Information Services (appointed by President Gerald Ford). In July of 1990 Jernigan received an award for distinguished service from the President of the United States.
Kenneth Jernigan's writings and speeches on blindness are better known and have touched more lives than those of any other individual writing today. On July 23, 1975, he spoke before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and his address was broadcast live throughout the nation on National Public Radio. Through the years he has appeared repeatedly on network radio and television interview programs--including the "Today Show," the "Tomorrow Show," and the "Larry King Show."
In 1978 Jernigan moved to Baltimore to become Executive Director of the American Brotherhood for the Blind and Director of the National Center for the Blind. As President of the National Federation of the Blind at that time, he led the organization through the most impressive period of growth in its history. The creation and development of the National Center for the Blind and the expansion of the NFB into the position of being the most influential voice and force in the affairs of the blind stand as the culmination of Kenneth Jernigan's lifework and a tribute to his brilliance and commitment to the blind of this nation.
Jernigan's dynamic wife Mary Ellen is an active member of the Federation. Although sighted, she works with dedication in the movement and is known and loved by thousands of Federationists throughout the country.
Speaking at a convention of the National Federation of the Blind, Jernigan said of the organization and its philosophy (and also of his own philosophy):
As we look ahead, the world holds more hope than gloom for us--and, best of all, the future is in our own hands. For the first time in history we can be our own masters and do with our lives what we will; and the sighted (as they learn who we are and what we are) can and will work with us as equals and partners. In other words we are capable of full membership in society, and the sighted are capable of accepting us as such--and, for the most part, they want to..
We want no Uncle Toms--no sellouts, no apologists, no rationalizers; but we also want no militant hell-raisers or unbudging radicals. One will hurt our cause as much as the other. We must win true equality in society, but we must not dehumanize ourselves in the process; and we must not forget the graces and amenities, the compassions and courtesies which comprise civilization itself and distinguish people from animals and life from existence.
Let people call us what they will and say what they please about our motives and our movement. There is only one way for the blind to achieve first-class citizenship and true equality. It must be done through collective action and concerted effort; and that means the National Federation of the Blind. There is no other way, and those who say otherwise are either uninformed or unwilling to face the facts. We are the strongest force in the affairs of the blind today, and we must also recognize the responsibilities of power and the fact that we must build a world that is worth living in when the war is over--and, for that matter, while we are fighting it. In short, we must use both love and a club, and we must have sense enough to know when to do which--long on compassion, short on hatred; and, above all, not using our philosophy as a cop-out for cowardice or inaction or rationalization. We know who we are and what we must do--and we will never go back. The public is not against us. Our determination proclaims it; our gains confirm it; our humanity demands it.
[PHOTO: Marc Maurer at
podium. CAPTION: Marc Maurer.]
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Patricia Maurer.]
MARC MAURER
Attorney and Executive
Born in 1951, Marc Maurer was the second in a family of six children. His blindness was caused by overexposure to oxygen after his premature birth, but he and his parents were determined that this should not prevent him from living a full and normal life.
He began his education at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, where he became an avid Braille reader. In the fifth grade he returned home to Boone, Iowa, where he attended parochial schools. During high school (having taken all the courses in the curriculum) he simultaneously took classes at the junior college.
Maurer ran three different businesses before finishing high school: a paper route, a lawn care business, and an enterprise producing and marketing maternity garter belts designed by his mother. This last venture was so successful that his younger brother took over the business when Maurer left home.
In the summer of 1969, after graduating from high school, Maurer enrolled as a student at the Orientation and Adjustment Center of the Iowa Commission for the Blind and attended his first convention of the NFB. He was delighted to discover in both places that blind people and what they thought mattered. This was a new phenomenon in his experience, and it changed his life. Kenneth Jernigan was Director of the Iowa Commission for the Blind at the time, and Maurer soon grew to admire and respect him. When Maurer expressed an interest in overhauling a car engine, the Commission for the Blind purchased the necessary equipment. Maurer completed that project and actually worked for a time as an automobile mechanic. He believes today that mastering engine repair played an important part in changing his attitudes about blindness.
Maurer graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1974. As an undergraduate he took an active part in campus life, including election to the Honor Society. Then he enrolled at the University of Indiana School of Law, where he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1977.
Marc Maurer was elected President of the Student Division of the National Federation of the Blind in 1971 and re-elected in 1973 and 1975. Also in 1971 (at the age of twenty) he was elected Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind of Indiana. He was elected President in 1973 and re-elected in 1975.
During law school Maurer worked summers for the office of the Secretary of State of Indiana. After graduation he moved to Toledo, Ohio, to accept a position as the Director of the Senior Legal Assistance Project operated by ABLE (Advocates for Basic Legal Equality).
In 1978 Maurer moved to Washington, D.C., to become an attorney with the Rates and Routes Division in the office of the General Counsel of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Initially he worked on rates cases but soon advanced to dealing with international matters and then to doing research and writing opinions on constitutional issues and Board action. He wrote opinions for the Chairman and made appearances before the full Board to discuss those opinions.
In 1981 he went into private practice in Baltimore, Maryland, where he specialized in civil litigation and property matters. But increasingly he concentrated on representing blind individuals and groups in the courts. He has now become one of the most experienced and knowledgeable attorneys in the country regarding the laws, precedents, and administrative rulings concerning civil rights and discrimination against the blind. He is a member of the Bar in Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, and Maryland; and he is a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Maurer has always been active in civic and political affairs, having run for public office in Baltimore and having been elected to the board of directors of the Tenants Association in his apartment complex shortly after his arrival. Later he was elected to the board of his community association when he became a home owner. From 1984 until 1986 he served with distinction as President of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland.
An important companion in Maurer's activities (and a leader in her own right) is his wife Patricia. The Maurers were married in 1973, and they have two children--David Patrick, born March 10, 1984, and Dianna Marie, born July 12, 1987.
At the 1985 convention in Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan announced that he would not stand for re-election as President of the National Federation of the Blind the following year, and he recommended Marc Maurer as his successor. In Kansas City in 1986, the convention elected Maurer by resounding acclamation, and he has capably served as President ever since.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Joyce and Tom Scanlan.]
JOYCE SCANLAN
Teacher and Agency Director
Joyce Scanlan was born in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1939. She received her elementary and secondary education at the North Dakota School for the Blind. Having a strong love of reading and theater, she went on to earn a B.A. in English and history and a master's degree in English at the University of North Dakota.
For the next five years she taught these subjects, along with social studies and Latin, in high schools in North Dakota and Montana. Then glaucoma took the rest of her vision, and Scanlan lost her self-confidence. She says, "I quickly fled from the job because I had never known a blind teacher in a public school, and I had had such a struggle those last few weeks in the classroom that I was positive no blind person could ever teach sighted children."
She had trouble finding another job, but as she points out, her own attitudes were as bad as those of her prospective employers. She told a counselor who visited her in the hospital: "I've never seen a blind person amount to anything yet, so there's no reason to think I can."
In 1970 the National Federation of the Blind convention was in Minneapolis, and Scanlan attended the meeting of the NFB Teachers Division. She says: "I met many teachers there who were blind. In fact, I met blind people from all over the country who were engaged in a great variety of occupations. I learned what the NFB was all about and realized what blind people working together could do." At that convention she also met Tom Scanlan, whom she married four years later.
Joyce Scanlan became active in the NFB in Minnesota. In 1971 she organized a statewide student division. In 1972 she was elected vice president of the NFB of Minnesota and president in 1973. That same year she was appointed to a newly created Minnesota Council on Disabilities--the only representative of a consumer organization on the Commission. Until 1988 she served on the advisory council to State Services for the Blind, a body established in large measure because of the work of the NFB of Minnesota.
The most exciting undertaking of the NFB of Minnesota, however, has been the establishment of its own rehabilitation center for the adult blind, with Joyce Scanlan serving as its executive director. BLIND, Inc. (Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions) admitted its first class, consisting of two students, in January of 1988. This center is establishing a new standard for rehabilitation services in the Midwest. It is easy to understand why the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota enjoys both respect and prestige. It is also easy to understand why Joyce Scanlan is regarded as able, tough, and determined.
Scanlan was elected to the NFB Board of Directors in 1974 and has continued to serve in that capacity ever since. In 1988 she was elected Secretary of the organization, and in 1992 she was elected First Vice President. She says: "The Federation has made a great difference in my life. I still try to spend time attending the theater and reading, but I want to give as much time as possible to working in the NFB. I wish I had known about it before 1970. I want to be sure every blind person I ever meet hears all about the Federation. If I have any skill as a teacher, I'll use it to benefit the Federation."
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Peggy Pinder.]
PEGGY PINDER
Attorney, Political Activist, and Community Leader
Born in 1953 and raised in Grinnell, Iowa, Peggy Pinder attended regular schools until the middle of the ninth grade. When her eye condition was diagnosed as irreversible decline into total blindness, her father cried for the first and only time in her life--at least, as far as she knows.
Pinder then spent what she characterizes as two and a half unhappy years at the Iowa school for the blind. Academically she learned nothing that she had not already been taught in public schools. The students were discouraged from learning to use the white cane and were never allowed off campus unless they were accompanied by a sighted person. But most soul-destroying of all, the students were discouraged from aspiring to success or from setting themselves challenging goals. Pinder resisted the stifling atmosphere and drew down upon herself the wrath of the school administration, which refused to permit her to complete high school there, forcing her to go back to public school.
Knowing that she was not prepared to make this transition, she and her parents sought help from Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, then Director of the Iowa Commission for the Blind. Pinder enrolled at the Orientation and Adjustment Center, where she mastered the skills of blindness and explored for the first time the healthy and positive philosophy of blindness that has subsequently directed her life.
Pinder went on to Iowa's Cornell College, where she achieved an excellent academic record and edited the Cornellian, the school newspaper. She then completed law school at Yale University, receiving her J.D. degree in 1979.
After graduation from law school, Pinder passed the Iowa Bar in January, 1980. She then began a difficult job search. Although her academic standing at Yale was better than that of most of her classmates, she did not receive a single job offer as a result of the intensive interviewing she had done during her final year of law school. Virtually all Yale-trained attorneys leave the university with offers in hand. The inference was inescapable: employers were discriminating against Pinder because of her blindness. She eventually was hired as Assistant County Attorney for Woodbury County in Sioux City, Iowa, where she prosecuted defendants on behalf of the people.
Pinder's lifetime interest in helping to improve the world around her has been expressed in politics as well as in Federation activity. In 1976 she was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City. During the Convention she appeared on national television and in a national news magazine, taking the occasion to acquaint the public with the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind and the real needs of blind people. At the end of the convention, she was chosen to second the nomination of Senator Robert Dole to be the candidate of the Republican Party for the Vice Presidency of the United States.
In 1986 she completed a campaign for the Iowa State Senate in District 27 (East-Central Iowa) on the Republican ticket. She won the Primary and campaigned hard in a district eighty by thirty miles in size and containing about 60,000 residents, a distinct minority of whom are Republican. From April through November she made hundreds of public appearances and managed an efficient campaign. Like many candidates, Pinder was not elected in her first bid for public office, but she made a very strong showing and is often asked when she will run again. Her interest in participating in her community has continued through her service on the Grinnell City Council and in other community organizations.
Pinder's work in the National Federation of the Blind has been as impressive as her professional career. She held office in the NFB Student Divisions in Iowa and Connecticut, and then served as President of the national Student Division from 1977 to 1979. In 1981 she was elected President of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa, an office which she continues to hold. Pinder was first elected to serve on the NFB Board of Directors in 1977, and in 1984 she was elected Second Vice President.
For the past several years Pinder, a 1976 winner herself, has chaired the Scholarship Committee of the National Federation of the Blind. Every year approximately twenty-five scholarships, ranging in value from $1,800 to $10,000, are presented to the best blind college students in the nation.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Ramona Walhof.]
RAMONA WALHOF
Business Woman and Public Relations Executive
Born in 1944, Ramona Willoughby Walhof was the second in a family of three blind children, but the word "blind" was never used when they were small, especially by the ophthalmologists. Nevertheless, even the large print books ordered for the children by the schools did not make reading possible. In the competitive world of the classroom the truth could not be avoided--they were blind. So they were packed up and taken more than two hundred miles away from home to enroll in the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. Walhof remembers that her parents found facing this alternative easier than struggling with a public school system that could not find a way to teach three bright youngsters who could not see print. A school for the blind was better than a school that didn't educate.
Walhof remembers learning to lie about what she could see. She didn't think of it as telling falsehoods, but she says, "It made adults happy when they thought I could see things, and at school (even though it was supposedly a school for the blind) one had privileges and responsibilities to the same degree one had usable eyesight."
During the summer following second grade Walhof commandeered her brother's Braille slate and stylus and taught herself to write Braille because the school considered her too young to learn it. She was taught to read using Braille, but she understood from the beginning that reading print (if only she could have managed to decipher it) was better.
In 1962 Ramona Willoughby graduated from high school, valedictorian of her class, but she says "with an extremely limited education and very little experience." Between high school and college, she took a short course of training at the Iowa Commission for the Blind Orientation and Adjustment Center. It was then that she met Kenneth Jernigan, the Commission's Director. She refused to learn much about the NFB although she now says, "The Federation had already begun to have a profound influence on my life." She found college difficult, she says, because her academic background was so weak. Nevertheless, Walhof graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1967 with a degree in Russian language.
In 1968 Ramona Willoughby married Chuck Walhof of Boise, Idaho. During the next several years she was busy. She and her husband had two children, and she taught two sessions of Headstart and one course in college Russian. She also managed two vending facilities. After the death of her husband in 1972 she returned to Des Moines, Iowa, first as a teacher and then as an assistant director at the Orientation and Adjustment Center of the Iowa Commission for the Blind.
In 1979 Walhof moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to take a position at the National Center for the Blind as the Assistant Director of the Job Opportunities for the Blind Program, operated jointly by the NFB and the U.S. Department of Labor.
In 1982 she returned to Idaho to assume the position of Director of the state Commission for the Blind. Her reputation for innovative approaches and dynamic forthrightness soon reached far beyond the borders of Idaho. In 1984 the blind of the state recognized her achievements by giving her an award in public ceremonies.
Later that year she left government employment to go into private business. Today she operates extensive multi-state public relations and community outreach programs for the blind and other groups.
Ramona Walhof has written widely on topics relating to blindness, including the following books: Beginning Braille for Adults, (a teaching manual); Questions Kids Ask about Blindness; A Handbook for Senior Citizens: Rights, Resources, and Responsibilities; and Technical Assistance Guide for Employers.
In 1988 Walhof became president of the National Federation of the Blind of Idaho and was also elected to membership on the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. In 1992 she was elected Secretary of the National Federation of the Blind.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Allen Harris.]
ALLEN HARRIS
Teacher and Wrestling Coach
Allen Harris of Dearborn, Michigan, was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind in 1981. In 1985 he became Secretary, and in 1988 he was elected Treasurer. He says, "I take some satisfaction in many of the things I have accomplished in my life, but nothing has given me more pleasure and reward than my work in the Federation."
Harris may well take satisfaction in his accomplishments. Blind since birth in 1945, he completed high school at the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing. He says of this period, "The two most valuable things I learned in high school were wrestling and typing. Although I could have used some other things, these two skills have served me well ever since." Allen Harris was a championship wrestler throughout high school and college. He was also a champion debater at Wayne State University and graduated magna cum laude in 1967.
Harris then began looking for a teaching position and enrolled in graduate school. At that time high school teachers were much in demand. He sent out 167 applications and went to 96 interviews without receiving a single job offer. After a year of futile search Harris was depressed, and his friends were outraged. One friend went to a meeting of the school board of the Dearborn Public School System. She spoke openly about the blind applicant for a teaching position who was so well qualified, yet was being ignored by scores of school districts.
The tactic worked. Officials of the school district said that they were unaware of Harris's candidacy although he had submitted an application. He was called for an interview and hired to teach social studies. In addition to a full-time teaching schedule, he coached high school wrestling, as well as swimming and wrestling for boys from age five to fourteen. He has coached at least six high school wrestling teams that have won league championships and one high school state championship team. His age group swimming teams have won five state conference championships, and his age group wrestling teams have won six. Harris also worked for several years in the administration of the age group program, and the Dearborn teams continued to excel.
In 1982 Allen Harris became a social studies teacher at Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn. He became head of the social studies department in 1984. Because of limited time, he gave up the head coaching job and now works only with ninth graders, who have not lost since he has been their coach. In 1985 Harris was selected by the National Council of Social Studies as one of two outstanding teachers of social studies in the state of Michigan.
Harris says that he was aware of some Federation materials at the time he was looking for his first teaching position and that he found them helpful, but his real knowledge of and involvement in the Federation began in 1969 when an organizing team came to his door to pay a visit. They told him there was to be a state convention of the Federation that weekend in Lansing and that he should go. He did, and he was elected secretary of the NFB of Michigan. He served as president of the Detroit chapter of the NFB from 1970 to 1975 and has been the president of the NFB of Michigan since 1976.
During the years of Allen Harris's presidency, services to the blind in Michigan have been consolidated into a single and separate commission for the blind, a major victory indeed. In 1983 Harris was appointed by the governor to the board of the Michigan Commission for the Blind, and he was reappointed in 1985 and 1988. In 1992 Harris received the prestigious Blind Educator of the Year Award from the National Federation of the Blind.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Steve and Peg Benson.]
STEPHEN O. BENSON
Teacher, Rehabilitation Specialist, and Administrator
President of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois, Stephen O. Benson was born in Kewanee, Illinois, in 1941. Blind from birth, he attended the Chicago Public Schools, using large print books through the first four grades. He was not excited about attending Braille classes the next year, but he did so and for the first time in his life learned to read well. He also began to learn the other skills of blindness, which he found more efficient than using sight. In high school Benson was barred from taking physical education although he would have liked to do so. He found this prohibition disturbing and nonsensical since he was permitted to take the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) course, swimming in the same pool that the physical education classes used. In fact, in Boy Scouts he was able to earn his swimming merit badge and took life saving. Benson found ROTC a positive experience and enjoyed scouting, but he never could understand why regular physical education classes were off limits.
In 1965 Benson graduated from De Paul University with a major in English and a minor in education. Before he decided to specialize in English, he had intended to major in psychology. The state rehabilitation agency for the blind threatened to cut off financial assistance to him because of his change in plans. According to the experts, blind people could not teach in public schools, and as a result, the rehabilitation officials refused to finance such an absurd major. Benson remembers that his attitude at the time was "I dare you to try to stop me!"--and the government agency backed down.
After graduation he prepared himself for the usually difficult task of job-hunting. Surprisingly, he found employment rather quickly as a tenth-grade teacher of honors English at Gordon Technical High School in Chicago. But teaching was not satisfying to Benson. In 1968 he sold insurance while looking for another job. He took one in 1969 with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois, teaching Braille and techniques of daily living. His title was Rehabilitation Specialist. He continued to work at Hines Blind Rehabilitation Center, Veterans Administration Hospital, until 1983. In 1984 he became assistant director of the Guild for the Blind in Chicago. Today he serves in the press office of the Chicago Public Library.
Benson married Margaret (Peggy) Gull in 1984. They have one child, Patrick Owen, born in 1985.
Benson first joined the National Federation of the Blind in 1968 when a new affiliate was being formed in Illinois. He was immediately elected to the state board of directors. From 1974 to 1978 he served as President of the Chicago chapter, after which he became President of the NFB of Illinois, a post which he has held ever since. He was first elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind in 1982.
Benson has received many honors and appointments. In 1963 and '64 he was president of Lambda Tau Lambda fraternity. From 1976 to 1981 he served on the governing board of the State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in Illinois. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Illinois State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and on the Advisory Board to the Attorney General's Advocacy for the Handicapped Division.
"Although I have had good blindness skills for many years," Benson says, "my involvement in the NFB has imbued me with confidence and perspective on life and blindness that have focused my activities and energized my efforts on my own behalf as well as for other blind people."
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION:
Charles Brown.]
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Jacqueline Brown.]
CHARLES S. BROWN
Attorney and Federal Official
With a bachelor's degree from Harvard and a law degree from Northwestern, Charles Brown should have found the job market both exciting and receptive in 1970, a year of expanded economy and bright prospects, but this was not the case. Even though he had impressive credentials and good grades, his job search was difficult. He was blind. It was not the first time he had observed adverse and extraordinary treatment of the blind, but it was the first time he had personally faced such serious discrimination. It took him an entire year and more than a hundred interviews before he found a job.
In 1971 Brown became a staff attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor, and he received regular promotions as long as he was there. In April of 1991 he left his position of Counsel for Special Legal Services in the Office of the Solicitor at the Department of Labor to become Assistant General Counsel at the National Science Foundation. The Department of Labor presented Brown with achievement awards five times--in 1979, 1985, twice in 1986, and 1987. In 1982 he was presented with the Distinguished Career Service Award, one of the Department of Labor's highest honors--often presented at the time of retirement. But Attorney Brown was chosen for this honor after only eleven years of service.
Born blind in 1944 with congenital cataracts, Charlie Brown entered a family that expected success from its members, and he met the expectation. He attended Perkins School for the Blind until the eighth grade. Brown then attended Wellesley Senior High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1963, going immediately on to Harvard. When he applied to Northwestern Law School, questions were raised about blindness. He answered them satisfactorily and believes he was one of the first blind law students ever to study there.
During summer jobs in 1966, 1967, and 1968 at agencies serving the blind in Chicago, Brown learned firsthand of the abuses of the sheltered workshop system for the blind in this country. It was also at that time that he met Dr. Kenneth Jernigan and made his initial contact with the National Federation of the Blind. Jernigan was speaking at a national conference which, among other things, was considering ways of improving methods of instruction and increasing the availability of Braille. After the meeting Brown talked with Jernigan and began to subscribe to the Braille Monitor, the Federation's magazine. It was not until 1973, however, when Brown received a personal invitation from a chapter member in Northern Virginia, that he went to a Federation meeting.
Through a chapter in Northern Virginia Brown officially joined the Federation in 1974 and later that year was elected to office. In 1978 he became president of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia and has been re-elected to that position for successive two-year terms ever since. He was first elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind in 1984.
Brown has always taken an active part in the life of the United Church of Christ. He teaches Sunday school and serves energetically on committees at the Rock Spring Congregational Church and has served generously at the Church's national level. In 1979 he was elected a corporate member of the United Church Board of Homeland Ministries (the body that oversees the missions work of the United Church of Christ). Within two years he was named Chairman of the prestigious Policy and Planning Committee and a member of the Executive Committee, both positions that he filled with distinction for four years.
Brown met his wife Jacqueline during law school, and the couple now has two sons, Richard (born in 1974) and Stephen (born in 1978).
Brown says: "I used to believe that one had to overcome blindness in order to be successful, but I have come to realize that it is respectable to be blind. Our challenge as Federationists is to persuade society of this truth."
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Donald and Betty Capps.]
DONALD C. CAPPS
Insurance Executive and Civic Leader
Few more compelling examples of personal independence and social contribution can be found among either sighted or blind Americans than Donald C. Capps of Columbia, South Carolina. Since the inception of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina in 1956, he has served eleven two-year terms as president and presently holds that office. Capps was elected to the second vice presidency of the National Federation of the Blind in 1959 and served in that capacity until 1968. In that year he was elected First Vice President and served with distinction in that position until 1984 when, for health reasons, he asked that his name not be placed in nomination. In 1985 Capps (restored in health) was again enthusiastically and unanimously elected to membership on the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind, a position which he still holds.
Born in 1928, Capps was educated at the South Carolina School for the Blind and later in public schools. Following his graduation from high school he enrolled in Draughon's Business College in Columbia and, upon receiving his diploma, joined the Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company of Columbia as a claims examiner trainee. By the time of his retirement, he had risen to the position of Staff Manager of the Claims Department.
Capps first became interested in the organized blind movement in 1953 and by the following year had been elected president of the Columbia Chapter of the Aurora Club of the Blind (now the NFB of South Carolina), which he headed for two years before assuming the presidency of the state organization. Under Capps's energetic leadership the NFB of South Carolina has successfully backed twenty-six pieces of legislation concerning the blind in the state, including establishment of a separate agency serving the blind. Capps edits the Palmetto Blind, the quarterly publication of the NFB of South Carolina, articles from which are frequently reprinted in national journals for the blind. In 1960 Capps directed a campaign which led to construction of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina's $250,000 education and recreation center, which was expanded in 1970, and again in 1978. He now serves as a member of its Board of Trustees. In this role he has been instrumental in establishing full-time daily operation of the Federation Center. In addition, Capps has served for more than thirty years as the successful fund-raising chairman of the Columbia Chapter. In 1963 Capps was appointed to the Governor's Committee on the Employment of the Physically Handicapped.
In December, 1972, the Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company presented Capps with an award for "twenty-five years of efficient, faithful, and loyal service" in his managerial capacity. In 1984 Don Capps retired from the Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company after thirty-eight years of service.
In 1965 Donald Capps was honored as Handicapped Man of the Year, both by his city of Columbia and by his state. In 1967 he was appointed to the Governor's Statewide Planning Committee on Rehabilitation Needs of the Disabled. Capps was elected president of the Rotary Club of Forest Acres of Columbia in 1974. In 1977 he was elected Vice Chairman of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind Consumer Advisory Committee. Also in 1977, at the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind, Don Capps received the highest honor that can be bestowed by the organized blind movement, the Jacobus tenBroek Award.
Honor and recognition continue to come to Donald Capps. In 1981 he was appointed by the Governor of South Carolina to membership on the Board of Commissioners of the South Carolina School for the Blind, a body on which he now serves as Vice Chairman. In September, 1988, Donald Capps was a member of the NFB delegation to the Second General Assembly of the World Blind Union, held in Madrid, Spain. In October of 1992 Capps was a member of the NFB delegation to the Third General Assembly of the World Blind Union, held in Cairo, Egypt.
Betty Capps has been an active Federationist as long as her husband has. The Cappses have two grown children, Craig and Beth, and three grandchildren. Although Donald Capps has retired from business, he continues to be as active and effective as ever in the Federation, exemplifying leadership and confidence. His ongoing dedication to the National Federation of the Blind provides inspiration and encouragement to his many colleagues and friends within and outside the Federation.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Glenn and Norma Crosby.]
GLENN CROSBY
Businessman and Community Leader
The President of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas is Glenn Crosby of Houston. He was first elected to that position in 1968 and served until 1970. He was again elected in 1978. Crosby is a successful restaurant owner and manager, having opened his first snack bar in 1968. During the past twenty years he has owned food service businesses at five separate locations, usually two or three at a time. He has served on the school board of All Saints Elementary Catholic School, been a director of the Houston Heights Little League, and been active in several city and county political campaigns.
On April 15, 1989, Glenn Crosby and Norma Beathard were married. Norma is the capable President of the National Federation of the Blind of Houston.
Born in 1945, Glenn Crosby was blinded at the age of three by an accident. He was educated at the Texas School for the Blind. He says that there were so many restrictive rules at that school that the students learned to defy them. "It was the only way to survive," he says. "We learned (for better or worse) to take risks when we were still young."
The only dating permitted was expeditions to school socials. Students could leave the campus only in groups and only on Saturday afternoons twice a month unless they had specific parental permission for additional trips. Crosby graduated in 1963. The preceding year half the senior class was not graduated because they had left campus a few days before the ceremony for a celebration. The message to the Class of '63 was perhaps not what school officials had intended. The students did not forego their party; they merely took pains to insure that they were not caught. Crosby's assessment of the school's curriculum is that the classes were not bad but that the courses that would have allowed admission to the best colleges and universities were not available. He earned state championships in wrestling and was offered the opportunity to compete for the Olympics in 1964. Crosby believes that blindness was the reason he was not offered a wrestling scholarship at a prestigious school.
Poor as his education was, Crosby is grateful that he was among the relative handful of blind Texans who were educated at all at the time. Many blind youngsters were sent to the school for the blind as teenagers to learn a trade if they could, and most of these people are now employed in the state's thirteen sheltered workshops, frequently earning painfully low wages. It is not hard to understand why Glenn Crosby devotes a large part of his time and energy to the National Federation of the Blind-- the consumer organization working to improve the lives and prospects of blind people.
Crosby's first job was with the Poverty Program. The only blind people he knew who earned a decent living worked in food service under the Randolph-Sheppard program. His parents had been in business and had done some fast food service. Crosby did not want a business run by the state commission for the blind. He believed that he had had enough experience with state bureaucracy at the School for the Blind. Besides, he had learned to take risks young. Crosby does not doubt today that he made the right decision.
"If I had not seen it for myself, it would be hard for me to believe that the blind have made as much progress as we have since I have been a part of the Federation--a little more than twenty years. There are still thousands of blind people in Texas (and I am sure even more throughout the country) who have never had much of an education or much constructive help. The quality of their lives is poor. One day at a time I try to do my part to help improve the quality of life for all of us who are blind."
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Priscilla and Jack Ferris.]
PRISCILLA FERRIS
Homemaker, Girl Scout Administrator, and Community Volunteer
In 1938 Priscilla Pacheco Ferris was born in Dighton, Massachusetts. From the time she was a small child, she knew she had weak eyesight, but she and her family did not know that the condition, retinitis pigmentosa, would deteriorate into total blindness. During her early school years Ferris used print, but three years later, when her brother (who had the same eye condition) entered school, the staff refused to teach two blind children. So the Pacheco youngsters enrolled in the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts.
When Ferris entered Perkins, she was beginning the fourth grade, and she was expected to learn Braille immediately even though she could still read large print. She remembers that it took her about a month. She didn't feel put upon; it was simply a challenge. Today she recalls this when she must deal with debates about whether a blind child should read Braille or print. "Teach both," Ferris says unequivocally. "Low-vision children were not too stupid to learn both when I was a kid, and things haven't changed that much since."
After high school graduation in 1956, Priscilla Pacheco worked in a curtain factory for a year. She would have liked to go to college but did not have the money. Then she worked for five years in a cookie factory, doing whatever needed to be done, including assembly line work, packaging, and packing. She married Jack Ferris in 1961, and in 1963 she resigned to begin a family. The Ferrises now have two grown daughters.
In 1977, Priscilla Ferris finally had an opportunity to attend business school, where she earned a degree and graduated with distinction. Then she found a job as secretary for the Fall River Public Schools. By the time funding cuts eliminated her position, she was too busy with community activities and work for the Federation to look for another job.
Ferris led her first Girl Scout troop while working at the cookie factory in the 1950's. From that time until her own daughters were in Scouts she led troops from time to time. In 1974 she began fourteen years as town administrator for the Girl Scouts in Somerset, Massachusetts, a job in which she was responsible for the entire scouting program for the city. She quips that, not only can she light a fire in the rain, raise a tent in a storm, and dig a latrine almost anywhere, but she can teach anyone else to. In 1986 she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Girl Scout Council of Plymouth Bay, and she has recently been elected to another three-year term. Ferris's contribution to scouting was recognized by the Council when it presented her with an award as the Outstanding Adult in 1986.
Ferris first heard of the National Federation of the Blind when a new chapter was formed in her area in 1961. She was mildly interested, but she did not join the Federation until 1974, shortly before losing the remainder of her eyesight. In 1976 Ferris was elected president of the Greater Fall River Chapter of the NFB of Massachusetts. She has been re-elected president every year from that time until the present.
In 1977, Ferris was elected second vice president of the NFB of Massachusetts and in 1981 first vice president. In 1985, she was elected President of the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts, and she has been re-elected for succeeding two-year terms ever since. She was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind in July of 1987.
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Sam and Vanessa Gleese.]
SAM GLEESE
Businessman and Ordained Minister
In 1947 Vicksburg, Mississippi, was not an ideal place for a black child to be born with congenital cataracts. For years no one even noticed that little Sam Gleese had difficulty seeing, least of all Sam himself. He simply assumed that everyone else saw things with the hazy imprecision that he did.
One day, when he was in the second grade, the teacher in the segregated school he attended sent a note home, asking his mother to come to school for a conference. To the Gleese family's astonishment she told them that he had significant difficulty seeing to read and do board work. By the fourth grade the bouts of surgery had begun. Glasses (which Sam hated and forgot to wear most of the time) were prescribed. But none of this effort enabled young Sam to glimpse much of what his friends could see. Then, in 1962 when he was fifteen, Sam underwent surgery that gave him enough vision to show him by comparison just how little he had seen until that time.
He graduated from high school in 1966 and enrolled that fall at Jackson State College, where he majored in business administration. Looking back, Sam is sure that he was legally blind throughout these years, but he never considered that he might have anything in common with the blind students he saw on campus. His struggle was always to see, and that made him sighted. Occasionally he was forced to deal with his difficulty in reading, particularly when a fellow student or teacher pointed out what he seemed to be missing, but for the most part he denied his situation and resented those who tried to make him face his problem.
After graduation in 1970, Sam joined a management training program conducted by K-Mart. Everyone agreed that he was excellent on the floor and dealing with employees, but, though he did not realize it, he was extremely unreliable in doing paperwork. He consistently put information on the wrong line. His supervisor confronted him with the problem and told him he had vision trouble. Sam hotly denied it, but within the year he was out of the program.
During the following years Gleese applied repeatedly for jobs that would use his business training. When he supplied information about his medical history and his vision, would-be employers lost interest. Finally in late 1972 he got a job as assistant night stock clerk with a grocery chain. He had a wife to support--he and Vanessa Smith had married in August of 1970-- and he needed whatever job he could find. Gradually he worked his way up to assistant frozen food manager in the chain, though it wasn't easy.
Then in 1979 his retinas detached, and within a few weeks late in the year he had become almost totally blind. For a month or two he was profoundly depressed. His wife, however, refused to give up on him or his situation. Gradually Gleese began to realize that she was right. He could still provide for his family and find meaningful work to do. He just had to master the alternative methods used by blind people. Early in 1980 he enrolled in an adult training center in Jackson, where he learned Braille, cane travel, and daily living skills. He is still remembered in the program for the speed with which he completed his training. By the following summer he was working as a volunteer counselor at the center, and in the fall, with the help of the state vocational rehabilitation agency, he and his wife Vanessa were working in their own tax preparation business.
It was difficult, however, to maintain a sufficient income year round, and the Gleeses had a daughter Nicole, born in 1976, to think about. In 1983 Sam decided to try taking a job making mops in the area sheltered workshop for the blind. He worked th