Why I am a Federationist, and How the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois was Born

by Rami Rabby

From the Editor: We were fortunate to have Rami at the 2018 state convention in Illinois, and our affiliate preserved both audio and video from a presentation he made at the banquet. Rami’s Federation involvement exemplifies exactly what Federation involvement should be: he saw a need, at first a selfish need, then he saw the opportunity to help, he stepped forward as a leader, and later, when he needed help, he turned to an organization which was better able to help him because of the work he himself had put into it. Here is what he said to our good folks in Illinois:

Why I am a Federationist is inextricably linked to how the NFB of Illinois was born. On September 5, 1967, I was standing on the deck of the transatlantic liner The United States as it sailed past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River to the Port of New York. As a sighted child in Israel I had seen the movie called On the Town about three sailors on shore leave gallivanting around Manhattan among those amazing skyscrapers and having the time of their lives in an America of unlimited opportunities.

So my excitement and anticipation were at fever pitch as we docked at Pier 83. I was in a group of Fulbright scholars on my way to a master’s program in business administration at the University of Chicago. Our group leader had suggested to us that, before continuing on our separate ways to various US universities, we should consider spending a few days in New York in order to get used to the country which was to be our home for the next few years. So upon disembarking I loaded all, and I mean all, of my belongings into a taxi, and off I went to the Grand Central YMCA. Imagine my shock when the clerk at the reception desk told me I could not stay at the Y because "our insurance company will not cover us for the added risk of having you here." That was literally my first experience in the US. Fortunately, Dr. Jacob Freid, then executive director of the Jewish Braille Institute of America, found an alternative, more welcoming accommodation for me, but two days later I was hit with the second surprise. I knew absolutely nothing about the study of business administration since my BA degree at Oxford University in England was in French and Spanish. So I very much wanted to make contact with blind students in the US and particularly with blind business school students. I had heard of Recording for the Blind, now Learning Ally, so I was sure they would help me. I composed a formal letter of introduction and asked Recording for the Blind to mail it at my expense to all the business administration students registered with them. Here, too, the answer was no. "Our confidentiality policy would not allow us to do that," they said. At which point Dr. Freid said to me "You know, given your experiences at the Y and at Recording for the Blind, what you ought to do, once you're settled in Chicago, is get in touch with Kenneth Jernigan.”

So in March 1968 I called Dr. Jernigan, who invited me to visit him at the Iowa Commission for the Blind. After just half an hour with him I came to two life-changing conclusions: first, that I had met in Dr. Jernigan a true soulmate and kindred spirit, and second, that as far as my blindness was concerned, the National Federation of the Blind was my natural home. Dr. Jernigan urged me to go back to Chicago, contact as many blind people as I could, and invite them to the organizing meeting of the new NFB affiliate. Our initial core group included Steve Hastalis, Jim Nyman, and Steve Benson, among others. Our recruitment efforts were bolstered by the arrival of a team from the national office which included Ramona Walhof, Jim Gashel, and Mary Ellen Halverson.

On Saturday, August 10, 1968, in the Gold Room of what was then the Sherman House, now the Thompson Center in Chicago, Dr. Jernigan gaveled to order the inaugural meeting of what we then called the Illinois Congress of the Blind, which later, of course, became the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois.

We hit the ground running. Just two months later we got the legendary mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, to proclaim White Cane Safety Day. We successfully lobbied the Illinois legislature to enact the White Cane Law. At our first state convention in 1969 none other than Archbishop John Cardinal Cody of Chicago delivered the invocation, and Congressman Abner Mikva came to express his support.

We went to war with the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind over its demeaning sheltered workshop practices and absence of blind people on its Board of Directors, and we demonstrated against NAC, which had accredited a number of agencies for the blind in Illinois.

In fact, our activism and influence were such that in 1975 Governor Dan Walker dispatched his top aide and troubleshooter, Steve Teichner, to address our national convention in Chicago. In his speech Teichner complimented the NFB, but he was astonished when, during the ensuing discussion, Dr. Jernigan produced an internal gubernatorial office memo from which he read to the convention what was obviously the Walker administration’s real thinking about us as follows: "The NFB of Illinois is the most vocal, politically active consumer group of all. They always seem to accomplish their goals, even if the mechanism is by embarrassment. Rami Rabby is a tough son-of-a-bitch. He will nail an opponent to the wall if he has to. You can tell him I said so. He is highly critical and considers himself anti-establishment. He is hard to work with, but you must do it; if you can co-opt him, you have 80 percent of the battle won.”

To which Dr. Jernigan reacted: "May all people feel toward us that way. It is not necessary to be loved, but it is essential to be respected."

I must say that for a brief moment I was taken aback when I heard myself described the way that memo did. But you know, deep down inside, I just loved it.

So why am I a Federationist? In large I am a Federationist for the same reason that I believe we are all Federationists: that is because the work we do in changing what it means to be blind, transforming public agency attitudes toward us, and spreading the message "live the life you want" is supremely important. But beyond that, my debt to the Federation has an added, more personal dimension to it. Before coming to the United States I had lived in four other countries: Israel, England, France, and Spain. In none of them was I ever politically engaged, either because I was a child as in Israel or because my studies and girls occupied all my time, as in England and France, or because speaking out against the government could land you in jail if not worse, as under Franco's dictatorship in Spain. So it was the Federation that taught me how to challenge government bureaucracies. It was the Federation that taught me how to negotiate the complexities of the legislative process and the judicial system. And, it was the Federation that taught me how to convince the media to report on us, not under the rubric of human interest but rather under the rubric of social revolution. Through the Federation I came to appreciate American democracy and America's open and freewheeling political culture. It is this appreciation which led me first to apply for and receive a green card, which allowed me to stay in this country, and then to seek and obtain US citizenship. That, too, is why I am a Federationist.