[Nfbc-info] Happy 75th anniversary National Federation of the Blind

[Tina Thomas]

Hello Everyone- 75 years ago during the 4:00PM hour EST The National
Federation of the Blind organized. I have pasted Dr. Tenbroek's 1940 call to
organize address.  

Tina           

 

 

[handwritten] Minutes of first meeting

Nov - 1940 - [end handwriting]

BLIND  OF  THE  NATION;

 

The time has come to organize upon a national basis! In dealing with

the public, especially in its many governmental forms, we, as handicapped 

persons, have long known the advantage and even the necessity

of collective action. Individually, we are scattered, ineffective

and inarticulate, subject alike to the opression [oppression] of the social
worker

and the arrogance of the goverenmental [governmental] administrator.
Collectively,

we are the masters of our own future, and the successful guardian

of our own common interests. Let one speak in the name of many who

are prepared to act in his support, let the democratically elected

blind representatives of the blind act as spokesman for all, let the

machinery be created to unify the action and concentrate the energies

of the blind as a nation, and the inherent justice of our cause and

the good will of the public will do the rest.

 

When the problems of the blind first began to be regarded

as a proper subject of public concern, they fell within the

jurisdiction of the county or township authorities. At that time,

local organizations of the blind were adequate. But wehn [when], in the

course of time, our problems were taken over by the State legislative

and executive  authroities [authorities], the local organizations of the
blind had to

be associated in a larger group capable of state-wide action. Now that

the national government has entered the field of assistance to the blind

we must again adjust our organizational structure to the area of the

governmenatl [governmental] unit with which we must deal. The time has come
to join

our state and local blind organizations in a national federation. Only

by this method can the blind hope to cope with the nation-wide difficulties


at present besetting us.

 

There are many goals upon which we can unite:-The

ultimate establishment of a national pension which will eliminate  the

diversities of treatment of the blind among the states and insure an

adequate support to all; the correction of the vices that have crept

into the administration of the social security act by seeking  its

 

[handwritten] amendment [end handwriting] 

 

in Congress; the  proper and reasonable definition of the blind persons 

who should receive public assistance; governmental recognition

of the fact that the blind are not to be classified as paupers and

that they have needs peculiar to and arising out of their blindness;

The propery [property] type of statutory standards by which eligibility for
public 

assistance should be determined; adequate methods for restraining

the influence and defining the place of the social worker in the
administration 

of aid laws; proper safeguards to prevent administrative

abuse and misinterpretation of statutes designed for our benefit;

legislative and administrative encouragement of the blind who are

striving to render themselves self-supporting; legal recognition

of the right of a blind aid recipient to own a little; earn a

little, accept a little; governmental recognition of our inalienable

right to receive public assistance and still retain our economic,

social and political independence, our intellectual integrity, and

our spiritual self-respect;-These are but a few of the problems that

are common to the blind throughout the nation. But the mere lising [listing]

of them shows the imperative need for organization upon a national

basis, for creating the machinery which will unify the action and

concnetrate [concentrate] the energies of the blind, for an instrument
through which

the blind of the nation can speak to Congress and the Public in a voice

that will be heard and command attention. Until the blind become

group conscious and support such an organization, they will continue

to live out their lives in material poverty, in social isolation,

and in the atrophy of their productive powers.