[Massachusetts-NFB] Possible Initiative for Our Affiliate

Wed Jun 28 21:28:15 UTC 2023

Shirley and all,

I agree Perkins is an accepting place for diversity.  They are involved in bringing students here from abroad, as well has teacher  trainees who study at Perkins.  They also have some kind of work whereby they train people by going to other countries to support blind folks.  One story, from my senior class trip (which I missed due to year of illness) goes like this:  Isaac Obie, African-American, was on the trip to Washington, D.c.  He went in a restaurant with the others, and was denied due to his skin color, so all of them marched right back out of there.  I agree that this type of going through changing things from the past by deleting, new names, and so on – there is most likely no end.  In my book club, a woman had a list of a bunch of books that libraries evidently want to ban, or some group wants them banned.  It included To Kill a Mockingbird, which we had to read in English when I attended Perkins.

One good memory is that we had an annual international celebration for a week, which included students signing up for activities with teacher trainees from places like India and Japan.  This often included eating food from that country, or learning a song.

Okay, enough for now, and thanks for the discussion.

Sandy

From: ladyshirl519 at gmail.com <ladyshirl519 at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 5:15 PM
To: NFB of Massachusetts E-mail List <massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Sandra Burgess <SandraBurgess at msn.com>; Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Massachusetts-NFB] Possible Initiative for Our Affiliate

Good afternoon everyone!
I appreciate learning the history of how Perkins school for the blind was started… With that being said, the keyword is history! That was, then this is now! If we go back and try to correct everything today from what happened, Wayback win, and the history of many many things it would be a forever process!
We need to leave history as it is! Making changes moving forward to make things better is great, but let’s not try to change what happened many years ago!

I volunteer at Perkins and in my experience over the past year or so the staff there is very supportive and helpful to everyone, regardless of race or disability!

Shirley, Doris
Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 28, 2023, at 4:55 PM, Justin Salisbury via Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org<mailto:massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org>> wrote:

Hi Sandra,

Thank you for being willing to step forward on a topic that I know can frighten some people.

I kept looking for more information and found this page on the Perkins website, with the following passage:

Today, Perkins School for the Blind acknowledges that our school’s founding financially benefitted from both the slave trade and opium smuggling, and acknowledges the pain caused by this, particularly to those in Black and Chinese communities.
The founding of Perkins highlights complex issues around slavery, race, and profit derived from the exploitation of enslaved and marginalized people. As we look to our future, it is our responsibility to acknowledge our past. Perkins is committed to confronting the truth about the people and history of our institution so as not to perpetuate narratives that obscure or diminish inhumane treatment of anyone or any group of people.

https://www.perkins.org/thomas-h-perkins/

This tells me that the leadership of Perkins is already aware of at least some of the history, though it notably leaves out the enslavement of Indigenous people. Many of the Indigenous people of Massachusetts who didn’t die from European diseases or attacks were captured and sold into slavery in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic. Still, I think this page on their site is actually a step in the right direction, but why continue to honor a namesake when you know that he did these things?

So, the question remains: should we do anything about this?

Justin

Justin Salisbury (he/him)
2117 Chestnut Hill Ave
Athol, MA 01331
Phone: 808.797.8606
Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu<mailto:President at Alumni.ECU.edu>

From: Sandra Burgess <sandraburgess at msn.com<mailto:sandraburgess at msn.com>>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 3:48 PM
To: NFB of Massachusetts E-mail List <massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org<mailto:massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org>>
Cc: Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu<mailto:PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Massachusetts-NFB] Possible Initiative for Our Affiliate

Now, while I spent some years at Perkins school, for the blind, this is the first time I’ve ever heard that part of its history. What I do remember is that every year we celebrated the man who began the first kindergarten for blind children and worked at Perkins. Somewhere along the line, I also learned that Perkins was originally either called an asylum, or an institution. Well, I understand your point, I do not think we need to completely write history. What I do believe is that it is good for people to know , correct history. In my opinion, there are other things more important for our affiliate to take on.

Thanks for posting this,

Sandy.

On Jun 28, 2023, at 3:23 PM, Justin Salisbury via Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org<mailto:massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org>> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I have an idea for an advocacy initiative that we could take on as an affiliate. I am wondering if it is something that lots of members in our affiliate would be interested in addressing.

Many of us are familiar with the Perkins School for the Blind, but I bet most of us do not know who the school is named after. His name was Thomas Handasyd Perkins. Here is a Wikipedia article about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Handasyd_Perkins

According to the Wikipedia page about him, he was one of those rich boys who received lots of money from his grandfather and father-in-law, and then he found some really nice things to do with that money. According to the Wikipedia article, he became a slave trader and opium smuggler. According to the article, from these activities, he amassed a greater fortune and then used that to philanthropically support the Perkins School for the Blind, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, McLean Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

I imagine there are a lot of people who have appreciated some of the work of some of these institutions that he may have supported with donations. If we think about the Perkins School for the Blind today, though, there seems to be a real contradiction between being a school that is supposed to provide services to a diverse group of blind students and being named after a guy who got rich as a slave trader. Being a school named after a slave trader undermines the equal treatment of people of color at the Perkins School for the Blind and the blind community in Massachusetts more broadly; this is a rigid fact regardless of our political persuasion.

Now, the question that can have multiple answers is this: Do we want to do anything about it? I understand that we all have our priorities. Since the Red Sox are terrible this year, we all have a little bit more free time this summer. Do we want to raise this conversation? Do we want to talk to the Perkins School for the Blind about renaming?

I think this would be a good thing to do, but I’m interested in taking the temperature of our affiliate members before trying to do anything about it.

Thanks, everyone,

Justin

Justin Salisbury (he/him)
2117 Chestnut Hill Ave
Athol, MA 01331
Phone: 808.797.8606
Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu<mailto:President at Alumni.ECU.edu>

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