[nabs-l] History of the NFB

[Jedi]

Minh,

First of all, it's wonderful to see you on the NABS list. I hope you're 
doing well; can you believe it's been over a year since Youth Slam?

As to the history of the NFB, Walking Alone and Marching Together 
catalogs our history from 1940 to 1990 through banquet speeches and 
other related documents. From 1990 to 1998, there's a book called The 
Master, The Mission, and the Movement. This book is all Jernigan 
speeches, but it gives a sense of where we went during the 90's. For 
more recent history, you could utilize Presidential reports written by 
Dr. Maurer to fill in those gaps. I think Jernigan also wrote some 
Presidential reports that you could use. If you want direct documents, 
consider the Braille Monitor, Presidential releases, Presidential 
reports, and whatever docs the National Center can release to you. I'd 
call the Jacobus tenBroek Library and talk to Ed to see what else you 
can get. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if you could even talk to 
some national staff about matters of interest to get their perspectives 
since they were actually there during much of our history. I know Dr. 
Maurer's been actively involved since the late 60's. I want to say 69. 
There's also a book on tenBroek called Blind Justice that can tell you 
about what led to his founding the movement in the first place. And for 
a bunny trail, you may consider reading People of vision from the ACB 
as it tells much about the Federation and how non-Federationists felt 
about us during what's known as The Civil War. Jerry Whittle from the 
Louisiana Center for the Blind is also a great resource on NFB history. 
Finally, keep in touch with the Living History group as we've been 
archiving more recent events in the NFB. There's also a book called The 
Blind Doctor. While it focuses on Jacob Bolotin, there's also some 
discussion of what life was like for blind job seekers during the early 
1900's through the 1930's; this discussion sets the tone and backdrop 
for Dr. Bolotin and his story, but it's also one of the main reasons we 
got the Federation started in the first place. Good luck.

I'm sorry I can't be of help on the virtual high school thing. But one 
way to get your questions answered is to talk with both our NFB 
technology team and the technologists at the institution of your 
choosing. Between the two groups, I'm sure you can get something worked 
out and/or test for accessibility/make necessary changes to the 
platform for your use. Again, good luck.

I'm excited to hear more about your A.P. project and hope you fill us 
in on your progress from time to time.

Respectfully Yours,
Jedi Moerke
Original message:
> Hey Guys,
> I was wondering if some of the more experienced NFB members could help
> me with this. :). I'm composing an essay for my AP language class on
> equality and what does it mean in our society, and I chose to write it
> on blindness and how attitudes have changed significantly in the last
> century. I want to know the history of the NFB and how it was created
> and what it was like in its early years. I think the organization
> would be a good example of how people are trying to educate the
> sighted world and give blind people more opportunities to integrate in
> to society. I'm sure many of you could point me to some good resources
> on the subject, or even share your own knowledge on the matter.
>   On an unrelated topic, I was thinking of taking a class on Vertual
> High School, an online program for high school students next semester.
> I'm not positive if it would work that well with jaws since I heard
> that a lot of online classes aren't that good. If any of you have
> experience with VHS, it would be great for me to hear them.
> Thanks a bunches in advance.
> Minh
> --
> Patrick: "I'm mad."
> Spongebob: "What's the matter, Patrick?"
> Patrick: "I can't see my forehead!"

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