<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Slowly, very slowly we are making a dent in the transcription of files from our past. Here is a letter recently transcribed by our volunteers. I thought you would like to read it. Our affiliate had been reorganized only a week when this was written. (I love the date!)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Peggy Chong. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>June 13, 1955<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Honorable Edwin C. Johnson<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Governor of the State of Colorado<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Denver, Colorado<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Dear Governor Johnson,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> By unanimous vote of its Board of Directors, the National Federation of the Blind salutes you as the Man of the Year in work with the blind. During our banquet, the high point of our annual national convention to be held on the evening of July 17, 1955 at the Hotel Fontenelle, Omaha, Nebraska, the National Federation of the Blind wishes to present you with a scroll symbolizing this award. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> The attention of the nation’s more than 300.000 blind men and women is now focused on Colorado, because of the bold, sweeping, and imaginative action recently taken by you. In the view of the Board of Directors of the nationwide organization of the blind themselves, that action was a signal act of constructive statesmanship. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Immediately upon your inauguration into office you perceived the necessity of instituting measures for the improvement of the welfare of the blind. You proceeded to do this first by impartially and objectively investigating the facts, and there after by soliciting informed opinion. You called upon the National Federation of the Blind to investigate conditions and make recommendations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> You are perhaps the first chief executive of an important state to recognize the fact that the blind themselves may very well know more about their own problems than do those who assume to speak for them. Your action indeed may set a pattern of relationships between agencies for the blind and the blind themselves which other states and the whole nation may follow. The enthusiastic support which you have given to the principle that the blind men and women of your state should organize to unify and express their opinions is an essential element in that pattern.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> In accepting as your guide the overall program recommendations of the National Federation of the Blind, you have at one stroke brushed aside an ancient and entrenched approach to dealing with the problems of the blind, together with the institutions formalizing that approach, and substituted for it a concept which holds great promise for the blind of Colorado, and sets a goal not yet achieved by any other state.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> Your action has made Colorado a pioneer in a new era—an era in which the blind will be regarded as equals rather than inferiors, in which they will be accorded opportunity on the basis of ability rather than discarded on a stereotype of disability. Thus the new dawning for the blind of Colorado under your leadership has opened up entirely new horizons for the blind of the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> We therefore cordially invite you to attend our national gathering at Omaha, so that we may honor you as befits your accomplishments.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Yours sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> Jacobus tenBroek<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>President<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>