[Blindtlk] What is Federationism?

[Roberthansen1970@gmail.com]

One could say the acb are the neocon republivan red stater good old boys and the nfb are more progressive.  I too have gotten disenfranchised by the organizations and simply do my own thing.  There is a weekly show on chicagos rogressive talk 820 a m called The beacon.  It is paid programming by the lighthouse. They also pimp out one of these homes for the blind called Friedman Place. It is pretty bad.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Friday, May 06, 2011 12:24:46 pm
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] What is Federationism?


Dear Chris,

You are not the first person to feel this way and I would say that you 
always need to take everything with a grain of salt in any organization. 
There are people with extreme views in every organization and you can be 
turned off by the wrong people if you think they really represent the whole 
organization.
The war between the ACB and NFB goes back to the 1950's.    You can read 
"Walking Alone and Marching Together" to learn more.  .
There was a split at that point because of a couple of issues.
The NFB had come out on the issue of equal pay for equal work in the 
sheltered workshops that
was opposed by the (AFB) American Foundation for the Blind and the 
Lighthouses for the Blind, who operated about 2,000 sheltered work shops 
across the nation.
They had got a law passed in 1933 that let them pay Blind workers less than 
minimum wage and much less than the other disabled workers.  They were 
raking in the money at the Blind's expense.
This made the NFB the enemy of both of these organizations because the NFB 
was trying to take away their little thiefdoms and effect their bottom line.
Now , in the late 50's and early 60's the NFB came out for equal rights for 
Blacks and supported their Civil Rights.
There were those with in the NFB that were opposed to equal rights, mostly 
in the southern states, but others too,  for Blacks and the AFB and 
lighthouses tried to use this to drive a wedge through the NFB.
There were big fights at the National Convention.  There were those State 
Affiliates and Chapters who were opposed to Blacks and Jews being members 
and serving on Boards of Directors.
There was also accusations of people in some affiliates and chapters taking 
money from the AFB and Lighthouses to oppose NFB's efforts to over turn the 
wages law.
There was a split at the convention and a number of members who were against 
Black's civil Rights and being supported by the AFB left the Convention and 
marched down the street to another hotel and formed a new organization 
called the American Council of the Blind.
For many years and still today, the Lighthouses still support the ACB and 
provide them with a place to meet and money support in some cases.
Now the AFB and Lighthouses had this organization to trot out to oppose the 
NFB's efforts to get equal pay for the Blind and to prevent Blacks and Jews 
from being members and serving on Boards of Directors.
For many years Blacks and Jews were prevented from being members of the ACB 
until the Civil Rights Movement in the mid     1960's took hold.
They have since dropped the prohibition to Blacks and Jews and they rarely 
talk about the wages issue anymore, but the hate is still there.
They mostly argue over philosophy and stuff.
The NFB believes that blindness can be overcome by the use of good training 
and a positive philosophy and that we , using these skills can cope with the 
world as it is.
The ACB philosophy, on the other hand, seems to feel that the world should 
be made safer for Blind peopl