Fifth Generation Remembers

Fifth Generation Remembers

The Fifth Generation

Remembers

by Nicolas Stockton

From the Editor: Not many of today's

blind children will grow up with strong recollections of Dr. Jernigan. Nicolas Stockton is

one of the lucky ones. His mother is active in the National Organization of Parents of

Blind Children, and Nicolas, who is now about ten, has been attending NFB conventions for

more than half his life. This is what he wrote:

Dr. Jernigan was one of the most important people

in my life. I first met him when I was four at the NFB Convention in Dallas, Texas. Mom

told me that there was a man who had known my great-grandfather, Dr. Sam Lawton, who was

blind; and she took me to see Dr. Jernigan after one of the sessions. Dr. Jernigan told me

about my great-grandfather. He called him a very great man, and he called him a friend.

Dr. Jernigan took out his own pocket knife and gave it to me. He told me that it was to

remember him by. All these years I've kept his pocket knife in my NFB music box. Every

time I take it out, "Glory, Glory, Federation" plays, and I remember Dr.

Jernigan.

I've learned a lot about my great-grandfather

since then. He helped start the NFB in South Carolina, and he was a preacher and a teacher

and a good man. When I think about Dr. Jernigan, it makes me remember what people have

told me about my great-grandfather. Dr. Jernigan was not my great-grandfather, but I think

he was very much like him. My great-grandfather died before I was born, but Dr. Jernigan

did what a great-grandfather does: he gave me a sense of my family's place in NFB history.

He gave me a heritage. He also helped me to get a Brailler so I could learn to write. I

wrote to him when he was sick with my Brailler. I miss him very, very much, but I still

have his knife, and I will always remember him almost like he was my great-grandfather.