[Nfbofsc] Just for your information from the October 2017 Braille Monitor

[David Houck]

Braille Monitor                                     October 2017

 

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Origins of the NFB Pledge

 

by Anna Kresmer

 

Anna KresmerFrom the Editor: Anna Kresmer is one of the most valuable
resources we have in the Jacobus tenBroek Library. She understands our
history, embraces our philosophy, and can answer almost any question asked
of her. She can offer her opinion and then back it up with one or more
documents. After almost a decade at her work, she was surprised when she had
what appeared to be a simple question that sent her back to the stacks to
answer. Here is what she says:

 

After nine years working with the archives of the National Federation of the
Blind, it is not often these days that a reference question about Federation
history truly stumps me. But this is exactly what happened recently. I
received a request from a member in our Massachusetts affiliate which asked
how the pledge that Federationists recite at every chapter meeting, state
convention, and national convention was originally created. Like the member,
I could not find any reference to the adoption of the pledge online in our
literature or publications, including our recent seventy-fifth anniversary
history book. However, when I still could not find reference to the pledge
in both the Jacobus tenBroek Collection and the NFB Institutional Records, I
knew it was time to consult with a real expert on the subject of NFB
history. I speak, of course, of none other than Dr. Marc Maurer. Needless to
say, he put me on the right path immediately.

 

The pledge that we all know and use today came about during the 1974 NFB
National Convention in Chicago. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan first spoke about the
idea of a formal pledge to show one's support for the organization during
his Presidential Report. In those days, the report was delivered in a more
off-the-cuff manner using only notes, but thankfully it was transcribed and
later printed in full in the September 1974 Braille Monitor. Here is how Dr.
Jernigan addressed the Convention:

 

    Ever since 1971, we've been on a sharply ascending curve
organizationally-in power, in prestige, and, I think, in responsibility. We
must exercise with care the very considerable power inherent in an
organization as large and as broadly representative as we are. We must also,
however, recognize that there are dangers any time a group makes as many
waves as we have; we can expect to be subjects of vicious counter-attacks.
Now, I think that it is in that context that we must view our situation.
During the American Revolution, you know, the leaders said: "We pledge our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Well, in retrospect that sounds
like rhetoric. But think about it; it wasn't just rhetoric. It meant what it
said. If you take us as a group, blind people in this country, we have
pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor-because although they
are not going to come out and kill us in the usual sense of that word, life
is going to be a different kind of life, and for some blind persons, not
really worth the living if this movement does not succeed. And furthermore,
[applause] as to fortune, although some of us as individuals may do well
financially, the blind as a class can expect very little except the same old
custody and care, shelter and pity, and contempt which we have always
received if we don't succeed in this movement. And as to our honors, already
there are people who try to make us appear to be less than human by what
they've said and done and how they felt. it is my duty not to hesitate, not
to count the cost personally, it is my duty to lead where I ought to lead,
stand out on the cutting edge and be willing to take the risk and not count
what it may do to me as a person, even if it costs me my job, if it costs my
reputation, costs whatever money I have- whatever it costs, it is for me to
be prepared to give it. Otherwise I am not fit to lead the movement. But, it
is up to you as members to do all you can to make that job successful. It is
up to you as members of this movement to be willing to give as much as you
can in the way of your time, your effort, your money, your dedication, and
your commitment. If you are not willing to do that, you are not fit to be
members of the movement. [Applause] In other words, those who believe that
the primary purpose of this movement is a nice little game, or a social
tete-a-tete, would do better to go elsewhere; they will find it more fun.
But those of us who intend to see this thing through and to make lives
better for blind people in this country and to improve our own status in the
world will stay to the end and we will prevail.

 

That year Dr. Jernigan also hosted a special presidential reception during
the convention with a receiving line that, according to the Braille Monitor,
"included not only President and Mrs. Kenneth Jernigan, but all present,
incoming, and outgoing officers and their respective spouses of the whole
board of directors; NFB staff members; and the top officers of the Illinois
Federation of the Blind." Each member who walked through that receiving line
received an official NFB membership card, which, when signed, certified that
that person was a member in good standing of the National Federation of the
Blind. On the back of these membership cards were the words, printed for the
first time, which every Federationist today knows:

 

I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation
of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind;
to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its
constitution.

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