[NABS-L] Who Is the Perkins School for the Blind Named After?

Wed Jun 28 20:44:26 UTC 2023

Hey Justin,

Thanks for raising an interesting and provocative topic. Notwithstanding the efficacy one way or the other of changing names or knocking down statues, I offer this recommendation from Bookshare which touches on many of the issues you mention:

After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller
[Book cover of After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller]<https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5247199/After%20the%20Miracle#fullCoverModal>
By: Max Wallace<https://www.bookshare.org/search?libraryToSearch=bookshare&sortOrder=RELEVANCE&authorFilter=Max%20Wallace&_categories=on&offset=0&author=Max%20Wallace&isbn=&libraryToSearch=bookshare&booksToSearch=ALL&_showAllStates=on&_containsImageDescriptions=on&disableSortOrder=TITLE&publisher=&qualities=PUBLISHER&qualities=EXCELLENT&_containsImages=on>
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Synopsis
In this powerful new history, New York Times bestselling author Max Wallace draws on groundbreaking research to reframe Helen Keller's journey after the miracle at the water pump, vividly bringing to light her rarely discussed, lifelong fight for social justice across gender, class, race, and ability. Raised in Alabama, she sent shockwaves through the South when she launched a public broadside against Jim Crow and donated to the NAACP. She used her fame to oppose American intervention in WWI. She spoke out against Hitler the month he took power in 1933 and embraced the anti-fascist cause during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of the first public figures to alert the world to the evils of Apartheid, raising money to defend Nelson Mandela when he faced the death penalty for High Treason, and she lambasted Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Cold War, even as her contemporaries shied away from his notorious witch hunt. But who was this revolutionary figure? She was Helen Keller. From books to movies to Barbie dolls, most mainstream portrayals of Keller focus heavily on her struggles as a deafblind child-portraying her Teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker. This narrative-which has often made Keller a secondary character in her own story-has resulted in few people knowing that her greatest accomplishment was not learning to speak, but what she did with her voice when she found it. After the Miracle is a much-needed corrective to this antiquated narrative. In this first major biography of Keller in decades, Max Wallace reveals that the lionization of Sullivan at the expense of her famous pupil was no accident, and calls attention to Keller's efforts as a card-carrying socialist, fierce anti-racist, and progressive disability advocate. Despite being raised in an era when eugenics and discrimination were commonplace, Keller consistently challenged the media for its ableist coverage and was one of the first activists to highlight the links between disability and capitalism, even as she struggled against the expectations and prejudices of those closest to her. Peeling back the curtain that obscured Keller's political crusades in favor of her &"inspirational&" childhood, After the Miracle chronicles the complete legacy of one of the 20th century's most extraordinary figures.

Happy reading!

Maurice Peret

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org>> On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury via NABS-L
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 16:04
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>>
Cc: Salisbury, Justin <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu<mailto:PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>>
Subject: [NABS-L] Who Is the Perkins School for the Blind Named After?

Hi everyone,

I have an idea for an advocacy initiative that Federationists could take on if we are interested. I am wondering if it is something that lots of student members would be interested in addressing. This email is about taking people's temperature on a topic.

Some of us are familiar with the Perkins School for the Blind, one of the oldest residential schools for the blind in the United States. It's located near Boston, Massachusetts, and states outside of Massachusetts sometimes send their blind students to grow and learn at Perkins. I bet most of us do not know who the school is named after. From what I've found, his name was Thomas Handasyd Perkins. Here is a Wikipedia article about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Handasyd_Perkins

I have not found a connection between this person and the Perkins family that promulgated eugenics in Vermont and throughout New England, but I'm looking.

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 noteworthy 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 more broadly because of the role of this institution in the education of the blind. Quite frankly, I think it's fair to say that continuing to celebrate Mr. Perkins by having a school named after him contributes to the ongoing marginalization of black and Indigenous people regardless of membership in the blind community, both of whom were enslaved in his day, in the New England region, and transported by ships like his.

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. Do we want to raise this conversation? Do we want to talk to the Perkins School for the Blind about renaming? Do we want to raise awareness throughout the blind community about this context of the residential school where blind kids are occasionally sent?

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

Thanks, everyone,

Justin

Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury

he/him/his

Board Member

National Association of Blind Students

A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind

Mobile: (808) 797-8606

Email: president at alumni.ecu.edu<mailto:president at alumni.ecu.edu<mailto:president at alumni.ecu.edu%3cmailto:president at alumni.ecu.edu>>

Website: http://www.nabslink.org<http://www.nabslink.org<http://www.nabslink.org>>

_______________________________________________

NABS-L mailing list

NABS-L at nfbnet.org<mailto:NABS-L at nfbnet.org>

http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org

To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NABS-L:

http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/mperet%40nfb.org

Disclaimer

The information contained in this communication from the sender is confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd, an innovator in Software as a Service (SaaS) for business. Providing a safer and more useful place for your human generated data. Specializing in; Security, archiving and compliance. To find out more visit the Mimecast website.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 58638 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/attachments/20230628/b51b9d04/attachment.jpg>