[Nfbofsc] Positive Note 1455

[David Houck]

July 2, 2014

Memo To:  Executive Officers, Board Members, Chapter & Division Presidents &
Others

From:  Parnell Diggs, President

Positive Note 1455

Dear Fellow Federationists:

 

              The first Positive Note of July, 2014, is dedicated to the NFB
of SC.  This month, we celebrate seventy years since the NFB of SC was first
established under an apple tree in the backyard at the home of Dr. Samuel
Miller Lawton, a blind minister from Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Only a few people were there on that hot July afternoon, and no one present
on that fateful day could have seen the impact that the meeting would have
on the state blindness field in the time to come.  In 1944, there was no
Commission for the Blind (the creation of the Commission was still decades
in the future).  There was no Business Enterprise Program or Aid for the
Needy Blind.

In many ways, life was futile for the average blind person, as there were
few options available to the handful of blind people who had managed to find
work in the early part of the twentieth century.  The vast majority (this is
to say, ninety-nine percent) of blind people were unemployed, and public
assistance programs had yet to be established.  

There were no programs of rehabilitation and no adaptive technology in the
early to mid-twentieth century.  The Rehabilitation Act and the Americans
with Disabilities Act, in 1944, were two generations into the future.  There
was no Model White Cane Law to guarantee blind South Carolinians access to
public facilities.  This was the world Dr. Lawton knew.

In his address to the small assembly at the founding meeting of what was
originally called "The Aurora Club of the Blind", Dr. Lawton expressed the
feeling that blind people needed their own means of self-expression.  Blind
people needed an organization that would be controlled by the blind
themselves, not by those acting on behalf of the blind community.

To guarantee that the Aurora Club would actually be governed by blind South
Carolinians, the Club's founders initiated a policy which remains the policy
of the NFB of SC and is still somewhat rare today (even among organizations
of the blind).  While anyone can be a member of the NFB of SC, only blind
members can vote and hold elective office.

Because of the influence of the Aurora Club (now doing business as the
National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina) life for blind South
Carolinians seventy years later is vastly different.  On June 2, 2014,
Governor Haley signed the South Carolina Blind Persons Right to Parent Act,
which is the forty-fourth piece of legislation initiated by the NFB of SC.

Over the past seven decades, the NFB of SC has seen the establishment of a
viable Business Enterprise Program, the creation of the Commission for the
Blind, a Model White Cane Law, legislation allowing blind children to enter
four-year-old kindergarten, a law which allows blind South Carolinians to
serve on juries, and many more initiatives which have improved the economic,
social, and spiritual well-being of blind people in South Carolina.

The NFB of SC operates the Federation Center of the Blind, the Bell Center,
and Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center of the Blind: all of which
are monuments to the tremendous track record amassed by the organized blind
movement in our state.

 

In many ways, we are a different organization than we were even at the turn
of the millennium just fourteen years ago.  But the world is also a
different place.  We don't change "for the sake of change", but we evolve as
the world turns.  This is a good thing because our challenges are different
now than they were seventy years ago.

Today, only seventy-four percent of blind people are unemployed.  We have a
rehabilitation system and an Americans with Disabilities Act.  But it is up
to us to find ways to shape the blindness field in a way that serves blind
people today; fore, while life is not as futile for blind people as it was,
we still have a distance to cover before our work is done.

  Joining me for comments in this Positive Note is the President Emeritus of
the NFB of SC.  Here is Dr. Capps.

              I congratulate President Diggs on this excellent issue of the
Positive Note as he has very succinctly reported the many ways the NFB of SC
has assisted the blind of the state.  I do not believe that any other state
organization of the blind has passed 44 pieces of legislation and owns seven
facilities across the state as well as many other things in which we are
first.  This is the week of the national convention and President Diggs is
heading up an excellent SC delegation.  I can hardly remember the time the
NFB of SC was not in the top ten in attendance and I'm sure this year will
be no different.  I have been blessed to have attended 56 NFB conventions
continuously, 1956 to 2011.  During that long period of time I experienced
some unforgettable events, some of which were challenging to say the least.
During an NFB convention being held in Phoenix, Dr. Jernigan gave me $1,000
in cash for the grand prize for the banquet.  I suddenly realized I did not
have the $1,000 and had inadvertently left it in our hotel room.  The cash
was in an envelope and was left in the night stand.  Dr. Jernigan told me
that he was not going to worry about it as he knew I had the funds
personally to replace the $1,000 which I didn't find funny.  We felt someone
might have entered our room and Betty and I dashed back to the hotel and
much to our relief the money was still where I had left it.  To make matters
worse, there was a sandstorm with the wind blowing all over us and you can
imagine that Betty was very unhappy having all that sand in her hair.
Another convention, but not as serious as the situation surrounding the
$1,000, occurred at the Baltimore convention.  I was the "MC" of the banquet
and John McCraw, who was President of the host affiliate and a member of the
NFB Board of Directors, approached me about making an announcement.  With
those credentials, I didn't hesitate granting John's request, but as soon as
he made the announcement, I realized this was a mistake.  John announced to
the large banquet reporting on the numbers on the horse races which of
course has nothing to do with the purpose of the banquet.  Immediately, Dr.
Jernigan got up from his seat and approached me as to how this happened.  I
told Dr. Jernigan I had no idea John would make such an announcement,
whereupon he proceeded to discuss the matter with John with considerable
disgust.  At future banquets I generally knew what announcements would be
made.  I trust that this year's banquet MC will have smooth sailing.  Let's
keep our SC delegation in our thoughts and prayers.  Rocky Bottom repairs
are winding down and I'm glad as they are taking a toll on our finances.
Let's all appreciate the freedoms we enjoy as we celebrate Independence Day
this Friday.

 

Final Thought:  "To get Orlando NFB Convention information, scheduling or
live streaming, go to https://nfb.org/convention."

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