Five Decades of Progress

Five Decades of Progress

Future Reflections Convention 1990, Vol. 9 No. 4
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FIVE DECADES OF PROGRESS
Editor's Note: A panel presentation entitled: "The National Federation of the Blind: Five
Decades of Progress," took place on Wednesday
morning, July 4 of the 1990 convention. Moderated
by Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, a panel often persons (two
for each decade) shared their personal recollections
of the decade in which they joined the Federation.
Dr. Jernigan began the panel with taped excerpts
from significant moments in the history of the
Federation. This very personal and moving account
of the emerging freedom and independence of the
blind had everyone in the audience glued to his or
her seat. It was both humbling and inspiring to hear
of the obstacles encountered and overcome by
Federationists throughout the past five decades. In
1940 freedom was a distant dream that only the
boldest of the blind dared to strive for. Today,
because of the National Federation of the Blind, it
is a reality within the grasp of many.
Below is the transcription of three of the presentations;
Joe DeBeer representing the forties, and
Michael Baillif (blind student) and Ruby Ryles
(sighted parent of blind child) representing the
eighties. The complete panel plus narration by Dr.
Jernigan is printed in the October/November 1990 Braille Monitor. The tape that was played as part of
the program is available for $2.00. Both the tape and
the Braille Monitor issue (which is free) can be
ordered through: National Federation of the Blind
Materials Center, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore,
Maryland 21230. For the Braille Monitor issue,
please designate the format you desire: Braille,
print, disc, or cassette tape.
Dr. Jernigan: Now we move to the next representative
from the forties. Joe DeBeer was not
present at the 1940 convention. Mrs. DeBeer was.
Joe was unable to attend, but very shortly he was
not only present at the convention but an officer in
this organization. Many things happened in those
early days. Before introducing Joe DeBeer to you,
I want to give you some flavor of it. I have, as you
will gather, dug through the files. I cannot speak
from personal knowledge about the early forties. I
joined this organization in 1949 and attended my
first National Convention in 1952. However, I have,
as I say, dug into the files.
During 1990 we've worked with the National
Library Service and others, attempting to institute a
system insuring that teachers of blind children will
know how to read and write Braille and requiring
proof that teachers really possess that skill. I didn't
sit through all of the Resolutions Committee meeting,
so I don't know whether we have a resolution
on Braille competence or not; but, if we don't, we
might have done one--oh, something like this:
WHEREAS, many teachers have been given
positions teaching the blind without a knowledge
of Braille: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, by the National Federation
of the Blind in annual convention assembled
that we strongly recommend that no person be
appointed in any school to teach the blind who
has not successfully passed a rigid examination
in the arts of writing and reading Braille Grade
II and that this provision be made a statute in the
several states.
We might write such a resolution, or perhaps
we could just dig out the one that was passed in
Baltimore in 1948, which is what I just read you. So
the problem and the commitment have been with us
for a long time.
In 1941 the files tell me that there were 104
persons present at the convention in Milwaukee. I
believe that was Joe DeBeer's first convention. The
files tell me that our best estimates as an organization
were that in the entire United States only 5,000
blind people were actually employed in any way-- sheltered, whatever--that's all there were.
With that as a background, Joe DeBeer is from
Minnesota. I want to introduce him to you now to
talk about the Federation as he saw it in the early
days. One of the early pioneers, here is Joe DeBeer
of Minnesota.
Joe DeBeer
Dr. Jernigan, President Maurer, members of the
Board, and Federationists: I would like to mention
a few things about the changes that took place in the
first ten years of the National Federation of the
Blind.
In 1939 we had a new governor in the state of
Minnesota. He recommended that the blind get $21
a month for board and room. We went in to the
governor and told him that was a cut in what we
were receiving, and no person could live on it. He
said, "I have no time for working with a bunch of
blind people." So he told us to get out of the office.
His secretary told him that was no way to do. So
three days afterwards, we were there picketing the
capitol for three days. We had papers printed saying
exactly what the blind were receiving and what the
governor recommended. In a few days someone told
him that he'd better call in the blind because we had
called the Associated Press, United Press, and all the
radio stations we could get hold of. So he called and
said, "Tell Mr. DeBeer we are ready for the committee."
In the meantime, I had talked to the League
of Women Voters. So we came with one hundred
ladies of the League, twenty from organized labor,
and seventy-five blind. They said, "How many are
on your committee?" I said three hundred, so they
had to open the sliding doors. It took a little longer
to get the meeting started. The result was that,
instead of getting a cut often dollars, we got a raise
of twelve dollars.
In the beginning we worked very hard to get a
White Cane Law passed. When companies were
working on the sewer system, they never had barricades
on the sidewalks. Several injuries resulted.
It was the National Federation of the Blind that saw
to it that they were compensated for their injuries.
After that all the companies put up barricades when
they were working on sidewalks because there was
a great deal of publicity about it.
In the beginning it was very difficult to get an
apartment because the sighted public had an idea
that blind people were a fire hazard. So in big cities
they would buy a hotel (an old, unfireproof building)
that would house the blind. To the surprise of
the public, no fires resulted, and in a short time you
never heard any more that blind people are more of
a fire hazard than the sighted public.
There was very little reading material available.
Everything was Grade One or Grade One-and-a
half. Grade Two Braille was entirely too complicated
for blind people to learn. The blind did not
agree. So in the late 1940s some Federationists and
other people wrote in that they wanted more Grade
Two Braille inserted in the magazine. It was the Matilda Ziegler Magazine, I believe, that was the
first magazine in Braille; and I have been a subscriber
to it for over sixty years. Today, everything
is in Grade Two Braille.
Then came the first recorder. It recorded on a
spool of wire a little thicker than a human hair; and,
when that got tangled, it really was a big mess. I had
a spool of wire one time that got tangled, and it took
me two hours to straighten it out. The wire recorder
didn't stay on the market too long. Then we got the
first tape recorder. It played automatically. It had a
little crank with it that you could insert in the
cassette so you could rewind it by hand. Shortly
after that a fully automatic recorder came on the
market--a great improvement. Now, of course, the
American Printing House for the Blind recorder
plays six hours on a cassette, and the voices are very
natural. The greatest improvement is the amount of
material that is available from the Library of Congress.
For the first time the blind have almost the
same opportunity that the sighted have had for years.
I interviewed some of the blind--a new organization.
I think they went into the investment
business. Some Federationists are very successful at
it. I play at it a little bit once in a while. I believe
that the younger blind have much more of an opportunity
to get into the mainstream of life than we had
fifty years ago. Thank you, Dr. Jernigan.
Dr. Jernigan: The 1980s we now come to. As
often happens with the junior members of families,
you get the last of the shortest. We're going to cut
each of you to about three to four minutes. It'll be
closer to three. It is appropriate, by the way, that we
have for the 1980s a student and a parent. We're
going to begin with the president of the Student
Division. He is a worthy part of the membership and
leadership team of this organization. He's Michael
Baillif. Michael started out in an uncomplicated way
being a Californian, and I'm not sure where Michael
says he's from now. Anyway, here is the president
of the Student Division. Michael, demonstrate to me
that you've got discipline as a student. You've got
between three and four minutes, closer to three.
Here's Michael Baillif.
Michael Baillif
Thank you Dr. Jernigan. It was 1984. I was
seventeen years old. The NFB was forty-four years
old. I was a very young and inexperienced scholarship
winner. Very early one morning, I recall standing
outside a Phoenix, Arizona, Hyatt Regency
thinking, wondering who these people were. What
was this organization all about? Everyone was wearing
suits and making speeches. Particularly puzzling
to me was this "Glory, Glory Federation" stuff
everyone was always singing about. Well, then an
event happened which seemed small but made a
great impact upon me. Blind people began to walk
out of the hotel. One by one, hundreds and hundreds
of blind people began to issue forth from that hotel.
Some were going to breakfast; some were going to
the convention session early. All were traveling
independently, laughing, talking about the convention
and the day's events. I had just an inkling of the
kind of incredible people's movement the NFB
really was. Later that same morning I sat in the
convention sessions and listened to the agenda
items. I was struck by an amazing thought that had
never occurred to me. There really was discrimination
out there. As a blind person, I was a member of
a minority group. And the National Federation of
the Blind was the best, probably the only, way in
which to address discrimination and move toward
first-class citizenship.
I learned something else a couple of days later.
One morning Sharon Gold, Sheryl Pickering, and I
were walking to a session. I happened to be using a
very short cane at the time and not doing it very well.
So I bumped my head on a tree, cut my forehead
open, and started bleeding all over the place. It was
quite an event. But there was no hysteria. I didn't
even get much sympathy. Sharon and Sheryl simply
helped me find a Band-Aid for my forehead and
suggested that in the future I might want to try using
an NFB cane. We walked into the convention session
just in time for the call to order.
These three perceptions of my first convention--that
the NFB is a people's movement, that this
organization is the only way in which we can move
toward first-class citizenship, and that we are a
community of people who truly teach and really care
about one another--have been subsequently reinforced
and re-emphasized over the years. To me the
Federation decade of the eighties has symbolized an
ever growing power and prestige and an ever increasing
ability and commitment decisively to address
the issues that face us as blind people--not
only in the coming decade, but in the next century.
I can't wait to attend our seventy-fifth and our
one-hundredth conventions--not just to see the triumphs
which we will achieve, and not just to see the
challenges which will face us over the years, but also
to perceive the glory that we contemplate when we
sing our song: "Glory, Glory Federation."
Dr. Jernigan: Well, Michael, you show a
proper discipline and some command of the language.
So thank you very much. I see why you got
elected.
Finally, we come to a person who sometimes is
known because of her son, Dan Ryles, and sometimes
Dan is known because of her. You know, it's
a two-way street. A parent, a teacher, somebody
who is as much a part of this Federation as if she
herself were blind. And this is Ruby Ryles. Ruby.
Ruby Ryles
The eighties saw the organization of the Parents
of Blind Children Division (POBC). We're the
parents of the blind who will stand on this platform
and lead the centennial celebration of the National
Federation of the Blind. Our children will be the first
generation to grow up under the strength, the power,
and the guidance of an NFB family. They are learning
early in life the power of the organized blind,
the necessity of adult role models, and the value of
having parents taught well by the adult blind in
advocacy, attitude, and skill training. From Carbondale,
Illinois, to Carthage, Texas, to Spokane,
Washington, to Catonsville, Maryland, POBC
parents are making noise in their local school districts;
and the reverberations have been heard in
state legislatures across the United States. Watch for
our influence in Washington, D.C. in the nineties
because POBC parents are fast learners. And my
fellow Federationists, we've been taught advocacy
by the best.
The eighties saw the phenomenal growth of
state chapters of POBC. Our annual business meeting
on Monday saw twenty-five states represented
this year with other states organized but not in
attendance. Among other activities, these chapters
have produced exciting parent-training seminars,
giving the benefit of their experience of the National
Federation of the Blind's knowledge and training in
advocacy to parents. As a parent and a teacher, I've
been privileged to speak to POBC seminars around
the country, and I'm always overwhelmed by the
hunger of parents for our message. Parents of blind
children around the United States are outraged with
educational systems that will not provide our
children with basic academic and travel skills. They
are exasperated with professional jargon, reams of
paperwork, negative, condescending attitudes
regarding our children, and endless meaningless,
intrusive testing. We are incensed by professionals
in the field who do not understand that a young
partially blind child needs a cane early in life. We are weary of listening to the insipid excuses for not
teaching our children to read in Braille. Currently a
child who is blind or partially blind in all probability
will be functionally illiterate at high school graduation,
due to the lack of specialized skill training
specifically, Braille. Enough, we say. Our children
grow up so quickly. We cannot wait for professionals,
agencies, and school districts to get their
acts together. We want that appropriate education
guaranteed to our children by Public Law 94-142,
and our children need it now! Our state president,
Ben Prows, echoed other Washington
Federationists at our POBC parent training seminar
when he stated, "Professionals, if you want to listen
to us and work with us, we want to work with you.
If not, get out of our way."
The National Federation of the Blind's Parents
Division was born in the eighties, and it is a force to
be reckoned with in the nineties. We're changing
what it means to grow up blind. National Federation
of the Blind's Parents of Blind Children Division,
POBC, remember our name. You'll hear from us in
the nineties. Thank you.
Dr. Jernigan: Very shortly now, we'll bring
this segment of the program to a conclusion. I
remind you that the time capsule is being prepared
for the hundredth anniversary. I also remind you that
each chapter and each state affiliate is invited to send
an item to the National Office for inclusion in the
time capsule. You can send it either sealed or not,
and mark it for the 2040 convention.
You have heard this morning the heritage, the
fifty-year review of the Federation's growth,
presented worthily.
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