[NFBNJ] Fw: Black and Blind History Month

[joe ruffalo]

Greetings to all!
Please read and share with others.
contact info is provided for additional writings.
Joe


We care. We share. We grow. We make a difference
Joe Ruffalo, President
National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey
973 743 0075
nfbnj1 at verizon.net
www.nfbnj.org
Raising Expectations To Live The Life You Want!
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From: The Blind History Lady
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2019 8:30 AM
To: nfbnj1 at verizon.net
Subject: Black and Blind History Month
Jim Ivy-Black/Blind Man on Campus  .  Dear Blind History Lady Fans; 
February is Black History month, time to honor the accomplishments of the 
too-often overlooked black Americans, especially the black and blind. The 
discrimination a black/blind man faced 100 years ago brings up many 
questions to ponder. How much was a black man valued in white society? Was a 
black man privileged or more respected because he was blind? Was he less of 
a threat? Was he more of a pet?    Today I have a story of a black, blind 
man, an example of a life that highlighted the paradoxical stereotypes that 
conflicted the racism and blatant discrimination in our country against the 
black and the disabled, especially in the South.    Our subject left no 
papers, letters or autobiography to shed light on his thoughts. Those who 
wrote about him during his life and indeed after, give us a prickly look at 
the mindset of the times they were written in. Those who have looked back at 
his life, try to understand and define the discrimination vs privileges he 
was given. I find that his life is one of contrasting extremes.    I hope 
after you read this, you will go onto the super highway and read more about 
him. Talk about him with your friends and contemporaries.   Jim Ivy aka 
“Blind Jim” was born in 1872, the son of a former slave. They moved to 
Oxford Mississippi when he was a child. Jim grew up with little education. 
He worked hard from his early teens. When about 20 years old, he was blinded 
when coal tar paint got into his eyes  while helping to build the 
Tallahatchie River Bridge.   Jim had a strong, booming voice. After he went 
blind, he went to work singing in the streets and selling peanuts. White 
passers-by would often harass the blind beggar as they passed him. It was 
not until he came onto campus of Ole Miss in 1896 during a baseball game 
against the University of Texas State when he began cheering on the Ole Miss 
team with his loud booming voice. According to those at that game and as the 
legend proclaims, it was the loud and happy cheers of the blind peanut 
vendor for the home team that spurred them on from far behind to win. Blind 
Jim was hailed as the good luck charm for the team. He sold all of his 
peanuts that day and the next.    From then on, his primary sales territory 
was the campus. Jim proclaimed himself the Dean of Freshmen and each year, 
he spoke to the incoming class to, as he said, keep them out of trouble. 
Jim soon became the “mascot” for the school. He let pep rallies before 
games. He said he attended every football game from 1896 until he retired in 
the 1950’s and never saw them lose. When he stepped up onto the platform of 
the dignitaries at home games, he sat in the middle of the stage amongst the 
white people. He sat in the stands with the white students during games. The 
only black man to do so. Yet, when he traveled with the school to attend 
games, he had to stay in the hotel for the colored and eat at establishments 
for the colored.   There were no black students on campus during Blind Jim’s 
lifetime. There were only black staff working as janitors or kitchen help. 
On a normal day at the school, Jim ate with the colored staff, not the white 
staff or students.    A tradition began in 1923 by a salesman from the 
Schwartz Tailoring Company. Jim’s  clothes were tattered. The tailor who 
came on campus to fit the classmen for their new suit thought it was a 
disgrace the condition of the peanut vendor’s clothes when the students 
were dressed in style. The salesman gave up his commission and collected 
additional funds from the students to make Jim a brown suit. After that 
year, the Freshmen class took up a collection for a new suit for their 
 “Dean”.    Students were appointed from the freshman class to lead “Blind 
Jim” around campus each year. By 1950, he had been led by three generations 
of families.    On more than one occasion when the school contracted with 
food service vendors that would exclude Blind Jim from selling his peanuts 
on campus, students made such a ruckus that the contracts were amended to 
allow Jim to sell on campus. Eventually, he even got an inside stand to sell 
his candy and nuts.    A column in the Ole Miss newsletter “As Blind Jim 
Sees It” appeared frequently. Family members believe that Jim did have input 
into the column. Blind Jim also liked a good joke. He helped freshmen play 
tricks on each other. He actively partook in jokes that challenged racial 
lines. There are photographs of Blind Jim, sitting at a desk in a faculty 
member’s office with his feet on top the desk. Many thought such photo’s 
were funny at that time. Had a black janitor had such a picture taken, the 
consequences might have been severe.    All of Jim’s lifetime, he heard of 
the lynching of many black men who “did not know their place”. Some were 
public spectacles with crowds of 500 or more where the press showed up to 
cover and photograph the drawn out torture and murder of young black men. 
One such man was L. Q. Ivy who may have been a relative of Jim’s.  No one 
was ever arrested even though photos appeared in local papers clearly 
showing faces of those actively participating and those in the crowd. How 
did these events effect Jim’s relationship  with those on campus?    During 
the depression, Blind Jim was endanger of losing his shanty that he had 
built. A local newspaper shamed the Ole Miss students and staff into helping 
Jim pay off the loan for his little home. The money was raised in time, but 
most of the funds came from one alumnus who lived out of state and read it 
in the newspaper from home.    When Jim died in 1955, his body was brought 
back to Oxford for two funerals at the Second Baptist Church. One was for 
the white people from the community and Ole Miss who knew the peanut vendor. 
This funeral lasted just over a half hour. Then the funeral for the black. 
Many of Jim’s extended family, church members and others from the black 
community attended to celebrate his life.        For us as blind people, 
does fears of blindness trump racial discrimination? Did Blind Jim bring 
about racial understanding? Was he viewed as a “Good Darkie” by the whites? 
Did he change the views of those on campus about the blind or the black? We 
can debate this all month. Indeed, those who have written about Blind Jim 
debate and come to diverse conclusions. If we could talk to Jim Ivy today, 
would he tell us he was just trying to get by the only way he could?   Let 
me know what you think of the life of Blind Jim.  You can read more in my 
Book at  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/831366 
www.theblindhistorylady.com . ‌ The Blind History Lady
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