[nfbmi-talk] The Origin of White Cane Safety Day

[joe harcz Comcast]

Great stuff and great reminder.We have to know where we've been in order to 
know where we are going.

Thanks Christine.

Joe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christine Boone via nfbmi-talk" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "Mailing List NFB of Michigan Internet" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>; 
<nfbp-talk at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 9:46 AM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] The Origin of White Cane Safety Day


> Greetings Fellow Federationists in Michigan and Pennsylvania
>
> This morning I realized that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the 
> first observance of National White Cane Safety Day.  I found this 
> excellent summary of the NFB's pioneering work on our website:
>
> The National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled on the 6th 
> day of July, 1963, called upon the governors of the fifty states to 
> proclaim October 15 of each year as White Cane Safety Day in each of our 
> fifty states. On October 6, 1964, a joint resolution of the Congress, HR 
> 753, was signed into law authorizing the President of the United States to 
> proclaim October 15 of each year as "White Cane Safety Day." This 
> resolution said: "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives", 
> that the President is hereby authorized to issue annually a proclamation 
> designating October 15 as White Cane Safety Day and calling upon the 
> people of the United States to observe such a day with appropriate 
> ceremonies and activities.'
>
> Within hours of the passage of the congressional joint resolution 
> authorizing the President to proclaim October 15 as White Cane Safety Day, 
> then President Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of the white 
> cane as a staff of independence for blind people. In the first 
> Presidential White Cane Proclamation President Johnson commended the blind 
> for the growing spirit of independence and the increased determination to 
> be self-reliant that the organized blind had shown. The Presidential 
> proclamation said:
>
> The white cane in our society has become one of the symbols of a blind 
> person's ability to come and go on his own. Its use has promoted courtesy 
> and special consideration to the blind on our streets and highways. To 
> make our people more fully aware of the meaning of the white cane and of 
> the need for motorists to exercise special care for the blind persons who 
> carry it Congress, by a joint resolution approved as of October 6, 1964, 
> has authorized the President to proclaim October 15 of each year as White 
> Cane Safety Day.
>
> Now, therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of 
> America do hereby proclaim October 15, 1964 as White Cane Safety Day.
>
> With those stirring words President Johnson issued the first White Cane 
> Proclamation which was the culmination of a long and serious effort on the 
> part of the National Federation of the Blind to gain recognition for the 
> growing independence and self-sufficiency of blind people in America, and 
> also to gain recognition of the white cane as the symbol of that 
> independence and that self-reliance.
>
> The first of the state laws regarding the right of blind people to travel 
> independently with the white cane was passed in 1930. In 1966, Dr. Jacobus 
> tenBroek, the founder of the National Federation of the Blind, drafted the 
> model White Cane Law. This model act--which has become known as the Civil 
> Rights Bill for the Blind, the Disabled, and the Otherwise Physically 
> Handicapped-'contains a provision designating October 15 as White Cane 
> Safety Day. Today there is a variant of the White Cane Law on the statute 
> books of every state in the nation.
>
>
>
> Read more at
> https://nfb.org/white-cane-safety-day
> year
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